Content
# Exa MCP Server 🔍
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/exa-mcp-server)
[](https://smithery.ai/server/exa)
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server lets AI assistants like Claude use the Exa AI Search API for web searches. This setup allows AI models to get real-time web information in a safe and controlled way.
## Remote Exa MCP 🌐
Connect directly to Exa's hosted MCP server (instead of running it locally).
### Remote Exa MCP URL
```
https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=your-exa-api-key
```
Replace `your-api-key-here` with your actual Exa API key from [dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys](https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys).
### Claude Desktop Configuration for Remote MCP
Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration file:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"mcp-remote",
"https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?exaApiKey=your-exa-api-key"
]
}
}
}
```
### NPM Installation
```bash
npm install -g exa-mcp-server
```
### Using Smithery
To install the Exa MCP server for Claude Desktop automatically via [Smithery](https://smithery.ai/server/exa):
```bash
npx -y @smithery/cli install exa --client claude
```
## Configuration ⚙️
### 1. Configure Claude Desktop to recognize the Exa MCP server
You can find claude_desktop_config.json inside the settings of Claude Desktop app:
Open the Claude Desktop app and enable Developer Mode from the top-left menu bar.
Once enabled, open Settings (also from the top-left menu bar) and navigate to the Developer Option, where you'll find the Edit Config button. Clicking it will open the claude_desktop_config.json file, allowing you to make the necessary edits.
OR (if you want to open claude_desktop_config.json from terminal)
#### For macOS:
1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration:
```bash
code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
```
#### For Windows:
1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration:
```powershell
code %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
```
### 2. Add the Exa server configuration:
```json
{
"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](https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys).
### 3. Available Tools & Tool Selection
The Exa MCP server includes the following tools, which can be enabled by adding the `--tools`:
- **web_search_exa**: Performs real-time web searches with optimized results and content extraction.
- **research_paper_search**: Specialized search focused on academic papers and research content.
- **company_research**: Comprehensive company research tool that crawls company websites to gather detailed information about businesses.
- **crawling**: Extracts content from specific URLs, useful for reading articles, PDFs, or any web page when you have the exact URL.
- **competitor_finder**: Identifies competitors of a company by searching for businesses offering similar products or services.
- **linkedin_search**: Search LinkedIn for companies and people using Exa AI. Simply include company names, person names, or specific LinkedIn URLs in your query.
- **wikipedia_search_exa**: Search and retrieve information from Wikipedia articles on specific topics, giving you accurate, structured knowledge from the world's largest encyclopedia.
- **github_search**: Search GitHub repositories using Exa AI - performs real-time searches on GitHub.com to find relevant repositories, issues, and GitHub accounts.
You can choose which tools to enable by adding the `--tools` parameter to your Claude Desktop configuration:
#### Specify which tools to enable:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"exa-mcp-server",
"--tools=web_search_exa,research_paper_search,company_research,crawling,competitor_finder,linkedin_search,wikipedia_search_exa,github_search"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
```
For enabling multiple tools, use a comma-separated list:
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"exa-mcp-server",
"--tools=web_search_exa,research_paper_search,company_research,crawling,competitor_finder,linkedin_search,wikipedia_search_exa,github_search"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
}
}
}
}
```
If you don't specify any tools, all tools enabled by default will be used.
### 4. Restart Claude Desktop
For the changes to take effect:
1. Completely quit Claude Desktop (not just close the window)
2. Start Claude Desktop again
3. Look for the icon to verify the Exa server is connected
## Using via NPX
If you prefer to run the server directly, you can use npx:
```bash
# Run with all tools enabled by default
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,research_paper_search
# List all available tools
npx exa-mcp-server --list-tools
```
## Troubleshooting 🔧
### Common Issues
1. **Server Not Found**
* Verify the npm link is correctly set up
* Check Claude Desktop configuration syntax (json file)
2. **API Key Issues**
* Confirm your EXA_API_KEY is valid
* Check the EXA_API_KEY is correctly set in the Claude Desktop config
* Verify no spaces or quotes around the API key
3. **Connection Issues**
* Restart Claude Desktop completely
* Check Claude Desktop logs:
<br>
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Built with ❤️ by team Exa
