Enables AI assistants like Claude to perform web searches using the Exa AI Search API within a secure environment.
Exa MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. Enables AI assistants like Claude to perform web searches using the Exa AI Search API within a secure environment.
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.
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a system that lets AI apps, like Claude Desktop, connect to external tools and data sources. It gives a clear and safe way for AI assistants to work with local services and APIs while keeping the user in control.
The server ships on npm as @smithery/cli, so your MCP client can launch it on demand — there is no separate build step. Add the server block to your client's configuration, restart it, and the tools register themselves.
You will need one environment variable: EXA_API_KEY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
Before you begin, ensure you have: - Node.js (v18 or higher) - Claude Desktop installed - An Exa API key - Git installed You can verify your Node.js installation by running: `
Plenty of search and retrieval servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. It is maintained by MrunmayS; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa-2": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@smithery/cli"],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
Before you begin, ensure you have: - Node.js (v18 or higher) - Claude Desktop installed - An Exa API key - Git installed You can verify your Node.js installation by running: `
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| EXA_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
The simplest web tool that matters — fetch any URL and get model-ready markdown back.
Industrial-strength web extraction — render, scrape, crawl and search entire sites into clean markdown.
Puppeteer-powered browser control that drives pages from the accessibility tree instead of pixels.
Search built for AI, not humans — semantic web search that returns model-ready content, plus code context.
Answers, not links — delegate questions to Perplexity's search-grounded models and get cited responses back.
Put 6,000+ pre-built scrapers at your assistant's fingertips through one MCP endpoint.