Which coding agents can use exa?

exa works in any agent that reads an MCP config file: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and Windsurf. Each agent reads it from its own file; this page names the file for each one.

Development

MCP

exa

Searches the web through the Exa API and returns full page content, not just links.

BOOST

theagenticguy@theagenticguy

GitHub

From plugin

erpaval

2911 skills4 agents3 hooks5 MCP

Claude Code

> /plugin marketplace add laithalsaadoon/erpaval
> /plugin install erpaval@erpaval

Codex

$ codex mcp add exa --env EXA_API_KEY=YOUR_VALUE -- npx -y exa-mcp-server

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Cursor

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add it to mcp.json.

More MCP servers for Cursor

Gemini CLI

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add it to settings.json.

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GitHub Copilot

$ copilot mcp add exa --env EXA_API_KEY=YOUR_VALUE -- npx -y exa-mcp-server

More MCP servers for GitHub Copilot

OpenCode

{
  "mcp": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": [
        "npx",
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "environment": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add it to opencode.json.

More MCP servers for OpenCode

Windsurf

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "YOUR_VALUE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add it to mcp_config.json.

More MCP servers for Windsurf

Security report

Low risk

Known flaws
None known
Signed build
Yes
Build provenance published
Maintained
May 29, 2026
Last push
Licence
MIT
Runs as
npx
On your machine
Deprecated
No

Signals from public registries, not an audit. Checked Nov 11, 2026.

exa README

Read on GitHub

Exa

Exa MCP Server

Documentation · NPM Package · Get your API key

Installation

Connect to Exa's hosted MCP server:

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp

Or use a plugin when your client supports one.

Agent Plugin

This repository is an Agent Plugin. Install it with any compatible client.

Claude

Install from the Claude Plugin Marketplace, or run:

claude plugin install exa@claude-plugins-official

Codex / ChatGPT

Install via Plugins in ChatGPT, or run:

codex mcp add exa --url https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp

Other MCP Clients

Most clients can be configured manually with the standard mcpServers shape:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp",
    }
  }
}

Client-specific configs

Exa MCP works with most other clients, point them at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp.

Client	Where to add it
Kiro	Use the Kiro power, or add manually to `~/.kiro/settings/mcp.json`
LM Studio	Add to LM Studio, or add manually to `mcp.json`
Replit	Add to Replit
Grok Build	`/marketplace` → install Exa, then `/mcp` to sign in
Gemini CLI	Add manually to `~/.gemini/settings.json`
OpenCode	Add manually to `opencode.json`
Windsurf	Add manually to `~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json`
Google Antigravity	Add manually to `mcp_config.json`
Zed	Add manually to `settings.json` under `context_servers`
Warp	Settings → Agents → MCP servers
v0 by Vercel	Settings → MCP connections

Available Tools

Default Tools

Tool	Description
`web_search_exa`	Search the web for any topic and get clean, ready-to-use content
`web_fetch_exa`	Read a webpage's full content as clean markdown from one or more URLs

Optional Tools (enable via the `tools` parameter)

Tool	Description
`agent_run`	Run an Exa Agent for multi-step research, list-building, enrichment, and structured output
`web_search_advanced_exa`	Advanced search with filters, domains, dates, highlights, summaries, and subpage crawling

Enable tools by appending them to the MCP URL (this will replace the defaults, so include all you want):

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_advanced_exa
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa,web_fetch_exa,agent_run

Exa Agent requires authentication (OAuth or an API key).

Dynamic Highlights (beta)

Add dynamicHighlights=true to the MCP URL to make web_search_exa and web_search_advanced_exa return Dynamic Highlights. These are highlights chosen across all results under one shared budget, not a fixed budget per URL, so less text reaches your agent's context. When the server runs locally, set DYNAMIC_HIGHLIGHTS=true instead.

https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?dynamicHighlights=true

Agent Skills

Skills live in skills/ and load with Agent Plugin installs. The Claude plugin in plugins/exa/ ships a copy of them; npm test fails when the copy drifts. Each package version bump on main publishes plugins/exa/ to the root of the claude-plugin branch, which Claude's plugin directory reads. To publish a plugin-only change between releases, run the Publish Claude plugin workflow manually.

Skill	Path	Use when
`search`	`skills/search/`	Deep research, lead gen, competitive analysis, multi-step web investigation
`exa-agent`	`skills/exa-agent/`	Exa Agent runs, enrichment, structured output, Connect providers

Invoke from your client's skill UI (or /skill-name where supported). MCP-only setups still get the tools; skills add orchestration on top.

Authentication

The hosted MCP server works anonymously with rate limits. For higher limits and access to Exa Agent, use either OAuth or an API key.

OAuth is preferred: most clients prompt you to sign in to Exa. To force the login flow (useful for shared connectors and plugins), use https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login or https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp/oauth.

If you prefer, you can get an API key from the dashboard and pass it on the URL as ?exaApiKey=…. You can also send it as a Authorization: Bearer … header or an x-api-key header.

Built with ❤️ by Exa

Stats

Python TypeScript Bash AWS Git GitHub Mermaid Anthropic MCP

Stars

Forks

Maintained

Maintenance

Python

Language

MIT

License

5mo ago

Last commit

6mo ago

Created

Repo: theagenticguy/erpaval

In this plugin

11 skills 5 MCP 4 agents 3 hooks

See everything inside

Ships witherpaval

Autonomous software development for Claude Code. ERPAVal stands for Explore · Research · Plan · Act · Validate — the five-phase loop, plus a sixth Compound phase that writes durable lessons to disk so the next session inherits what this one learned.

2911 skills4 agents5 MCP

Get the whole plugin

Stars on GitHub

Momentum

stars in total: 29

Star history of theagenticguy/erpaval on GitHub, a chart by star-history.com

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Questions about exa.

Which coding agents can use exa?: exa works in any agent that reads an MCP config file: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and Windsurf. Each agent reads it from its own file; this page names the file for each one.
How do I add exa to Claude Code?: Run these in order, one at a time. 1. In Claude Code: /plugin marketplace add laithalsaadoon/erpaval 2. In Claude Code: /plugin install erpaval@erpaval
Is exa safe to install?: Low risk. Signals from public registries, not an audit.