Overview

Use Exa’s Search API via the bundled Node script to fetch structured results (title, url, snippet, text). This Exa-backed approach serves as an alternative to standard web search and requires an API key. Trigger it by enabling Exa search, configuring the EXA_API_KEY, or running a query with the Exa script.

How This Skill Works

The bundled script exa_search.mjs calls Exa's API with your query and returns structured results (title, url, snippet, text). It requires EXA_API_KEY to be available in the Gateway environment or in ~/.openclaw/.env. You can request full page text with --text and narrow results by date using --start and --end.

When to Use It

• When the user explicitly asks to enable Exa search or configure the Exa API key
• When you need to perform a web search using Exa instead of the default web_search
• When you want to include page text in results for deeper analysis (--text)
• When you want to narrow results with a time window (--start/--end)
• When you want a predictable, Exa-backed alternative for structured results

Quick Start

1. Step 1: Ensure EXA_API_KEY is set in the Gateway environment or in ~/.openclaw/.env
2. Step 2: Run a search using the bundled script: node {baseDir}/scripts/exa_search.mjs "<query>" --count 5
3. Step 3: Optional: add --text to include full page text or --start/--end to limit the time window

Best Practices

• Ensure EXA_API_KEY is set in the Gateway environment or in ~/.openclaw/.env before running
• Craft queries clearly to maximize relevance for Exa's algorithms
• Use --count to control how many results you receive and manage costs
• Use --text for full page content only when necessary, as it increases latency and cost
• Treat Exa results as an additional data source and verify critical findings with other sources

Example Use Cases

• A user asks for the latest 2025-2026 AI policy updates and wants Exa-backed results
• Looking up official Exa documentation and API references for Node
• Researching climate policy news from reputable outlets within a date window
• Evaluating multiple software reviews from tech blogs with time filters
• Gathering technical blog posts about Node.js performance optimizations (2024–2025)

Frequently Asked Questions