Exa Web Search MCP server

The Exa MCP Server enables AI assistants like Claude to access Exa AI's powerful search capabilities, including web search, research tools, and code search features. It acts as a bridge that enhances your AI assistant with external knowledge from the internet.

Installation Options

Remote Connection (Recommended)

The simplest way to use Exa MCP is by connecting to Exa's hosted server:

For Claude Desktop

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For Cursor and Claude Code

Use this HTTP-based configuration format:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Remove-Me": "Disable web_search_exa tool if you're just coding. To 100% call exa-code, say 'use exa-code'"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can include your API key in the URL:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUREXAKEY

To whitelist specific tools:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=YOUREXAKEY&enabledTools=%5B%22crawling_exa%ss%5D

NPM Installation

If you prefer to run the server locally:

npm install -g exa-mcp-server

Using with Claude Code

claude mcp add exa -e EXA_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY -- npx -y exa-mcp-server

Configuration

Locating the Claude Desktop Config File

On macOS:

code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

On Windows:

code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Alternatively, in Claude Desktop:

1. Enable Developer Mode from the top-left menu
2. Open Settings
3. Navigate to Developer Options
4. Click "Edit Config"

Adding the Exa Server Configuration

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "exa-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace your-api-key-here with your actual Exa API key from dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.

Available Tools

Code Search Tool

• get_code_context_exa: Search for code snippets, examples, and documentation from open source repositories and programming frameworks.

Other Tools

• web_search_exa: Performs real-time web searches with optimized results.
• company_research: Crawls company websites for comprehensive business information.
• crawling: Extracts content from specific URLs.
• linkedin_search: Search LinkedIn for companies and people.
• deep_researcher_start: Start a smart AI researcher for complex questions.
• deep_researcher_check: Check research status and get results.

Configuring Specific Tools

For Code Search Only (Recommended for Developers)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server",
        "--tools=get_code_context_exa,web_search_exa"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Enabling Multiple Tools

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server",
        "--tools=get_code_context_exa,web_search_exa,company_research,crawling,linkedin_search,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

After Configuration

1. Completely quit Claude Desktop
2. Restart the application
3. Look for the icon confirming Exa server connection

Direct Usage with NPX

# Run with all default tools
npx exa-mcp-server

# Enable specific tools only
npx exa-mcp-server --tools=web_search_exa

# Enable multiple tools
npx exa-mcp-server --tools=web_search_exa,get_code_context_exa

# List all available tools
npx exa-mcp-server --list-tools

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "exa" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","exa-mcp-server"],"env":{"EXA_API_KEY":"your-api-key-here"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "exa": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "exa-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "exa": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "exa-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect