exa

Exa MCP Server provides a remote interface to Exa's search capabilities, including web search, code search, and company research. Once the MCP server is running, clients can connect to https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp (or the configured endpoint) and pass along an API key and tool selections to access Exa’s search tools. The server exposes a set of built-in tools by default, such as web_search_exa, get_code_context_exa, and company_research_exa, with additional experimental or advanced tools available behind the tools parameter. To get started, configure your MCP client with the provided endpoint and your API key, choose the tools you want enabled, and query the server to receive structured, ready-to-use results. The server is designed to work with a variety of clients (Cursor, VS Code, Claude, Windsurf, Zed, Gemini CLI, Warp, Kiro, Roo Code, and more) by providing adapters that point to the same MCP endpoint.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js (and npm) installed on your system
• Access to install npm packages from the registry (or use npx)

Option A: Run directly with npx (no local install)

1. Ensure you have an API key from Exa and set it as an environment variable or pass it in your client config.
2. Start the MCP server via the provided configuration (no global install required):

# Example: using the MCP config from this README
# No separate install step is required if using npx directly; the config is used by your client.

Option B: Install locally (recommended for stable usage)

1. Install the MCP server package locally:

npm install exa-mcp-server --save

2. Run the server or generate a startup script that uses the same configuration:

# Example startup using node (adjust path as needed)
node ./node_modules/exa-mcp-server/bin/cli.js

3. When using local installation, provide the API key via environment variable or in your mcp_config as shown in the example.

Option C: Use a container (Docker) if you prefer containerized deployment (optional)

# Example Docker command (adjust as needed):
docker run -e EXA_API_KEY=your_api_key -p 8080:8080 exa-mcp-server:latest

Note: The README configuration demonstrates using npx with the exa-mcp-server package and an EXA_API_KEY environment variable. Adapt commands to your environment and deployment method.

Tips and considerations:

• Always provide EXA_API_KEY to authenticate requests to Exa from the MCP server.
• The server exposes a default set of tools; you can enable additional tools by including them in the tools parameter when constructing the request URL (as shown in the README).
• If you switch clients, verify that the MCP endpoint URL remains consistent (or update client configs accordingly).
• For production deployments, consider running behind a reverse proxy, enabling TLS via your deployment environment, and configuring rate limits or authentication as needed by your infrastructure.
• If you encounter connectivity or key issues, ensure the EXA_API_KEY is valid and has permissions for the required tools (web_search_exa, get_code_context_exa, company_research_exa, etc.).