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version: "1.0.2" name: exa description: | High-precision semantic search and content retrieval via Exa API. Use when: (1) Deep research requiring semantic understanding, (2) Code documentation and examples lookup, (3) Company/professional research, (4) AI-powered comprehensive research tasks, (5) URL content extraction with structured output. Triggers: "research", "find papers", "code examples", "company info", "LinkedIn profiles", "deep analysis". Differentiator: Exa excels at semantic/neural search while grok-search is better for real-time news and general web content.
Exa Search
High-precision semantic search via Exa API. Standalone CLI only (no MCP dependency).
Execution Method
bash
# Prerequisites: pip install httpx tenacity# Environment: EXA_API_KEY (required), EXA_API_URL (optional, default: https://api.exa.ai)# All examples assume cwd == skills/exa/. The shim auto-chdirs if you launch# it from elsewhere (e.g., the repo root).cd skills/exapython scripts/exa_cli.py --help
Available Tools
bash
# Basic semantic search (highlights always on; supports inline category:<type>)python scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_exa --query "TypeScript design patterns" [--num-results 10]python scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_exa --query "category:company Anthropic AI safety"# Batch URL fetch (urls is a repeatable flag; payload field is upstream `ids`)python scripts/exa_cli.py web_fetch_exa \--urls "https://a.com" --urls "https://b.com" \[--max-chars 3000] [--out content.json]# Advanced filtered search (list params are repeatable flags, no comma syntax)python scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_advanced_exa --query "transformer" \[--type auto|fast|instant] [--category research\ paper] \[--include-domains arxiv.org --include-domains papers.nips.cc] \[--exclude-domains medium.com] \[--include-text "attention"] [--exclude-text "tutorial"] \[--start-date 2024-01-01] [--end-date 2024-12-31] \[--num-results 10] [--max-age-hours 168] \[--text] [--highlights] [--summary] \[--max-chars 5000] # only effective when --text is set; emits stderr warning otherwise[--out results.json]# Configuration / connectivity probe (omit --no-test to run a numResults=1 ping)python scripts/exa_cli.py get_config_info [--no-test]# Create an Agent run or resume the same retained runpython scripts/exa_cli.py agent_run --query "Research an evidence-backed market map" [--effort low]python scripts/exa_cli.py agent_run --run-id agent_run_123 [--wait-seconds 750]
Tool Capability Matrix
| Tool | Required | Optional | Output | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
web_search_exa | --query | --num-results (1-100) | Search results JSON (highlights always present) | |
web_fetch_exa | --urls (repeatable, ≥1) | --max-chars (default 3000), --out | /contents response JSON | |
web_search_advanced_exa | --query | --type, --category, repeatable --include-domains/--exclude-domains/--include-text/--exclude-text, --start-date, --end-date, --num-results, --max-age-hours, --text, --highlights, --summary, --max-chars, --out | Filtered search results JSON | |
get_config_info | – | --no-test | Config + (default) connection_test | |
agent_run | exactly one of --query / --run-id | schema/input files, data sources, prior-run continuation, effort, wait controls, --out | Normalized retained-run lifecycle JSON |
Global Options
Place before the subcommand:
| Option | Purpose | |
|---|---|---|
--api-url | Override EXA_API_URL (does not write to os.environ) | |
--api-key | Override EXA_API_KEY | |
--debug | Enable JSON debug events on stderr (EXA_DEBUG=true) — never logs auth values | |
--max-retry-wait <s> | Cap (seconds) for single retry wait + exponential backoff (default 60, env: EXA_MAX_RETRY_WAIT) | |
--auth-scheme <scheme> | Authentication scheme: x-api-key (default) or bearer for third-party endpoints (env: EXA_AUTH_SCHEME) |
Tool Routing Guide
| Use Case | Recommended Tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time news, current events | grok-search | |
| Semantic/conceptual research | exa (web_search_exa) | |
| Domain or date-bounded research | exa (web_search_advanced_exa) | |
| Read full content of one or more URLs | exa (web_fetch_exa) | |
| Academic papers, technical docs | exa (web_search_advanced_exa --include-domains arxiv.org ...) | |
| Open-ended discovery, multi-hop research, structured list building, prior-run follow-up | exa-agent (agent_run) | |
| Homogeneous enrichment over known rows | Deterministic script with bounded concurrency, backoff, checkpoint, and stable output file |
Workflow Patterns
Pattern 1: Quick Semantic Search
bash
python scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_exa --query "best practices for React hooks" --num-results 5
Pattern 2: Filtered Research (repeatable flags)
bash
python scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_advanced_exa --query "transformer architecture" \--include-domains arxiv.org --include-domains papers.nips.cc \--start-date 2023-01-01 --text --summary
Pattern 3: Batch URL Read
bash
python scripts/exa_cli.py web_fetch_exa \--urls "https://example.com/a" --urls "https://example.com/b" \--max-chars 4000 --out batch.json
Pattern 4: Third-Party Endpoint (Bearer Auth)
bash
# Connect to exa-pool or other Exa-compatible proxyexport EXA_API_URL=https://pool.example.comexport EXA_AUTH_SCHEME=bearerexport EXA_API_KEY=your-bearer-tokenpython scripts/exa_cli.py web_search_exa --query "AI agents" --num-results 5# Or use CLI flags for one-off requestspython scripts/exa_cli.py --auth-scheme bearer --api-url https://pool.example.com \web_search_exa --query "AI agents"
Pattern 5: Exa Agent
Read exa-agent.md before creating a run. It defines objective/schema/coverage checks, --run-id versus --previous-run-id, evidence validation, and ZDR limits without duplicating that workflow here.
References
The references/ directory carries 11 prompt-engineering guides. Open them on demand when crafting queries:
| File | When to read | |
|---|---|---|
searching.md | Crafting web_search_exa queries (semantic phrasing, category usage) | |
extraction.md | Choosing between highlights / text / summary on advanced search | |
filtering.md | Building include/exclude domain & date filters | |
synthesis.md | Aggregating multiple result sets into a coherent answer | |
source-quality.md | Vetting source credibility | |
patterns-code.md | Code/library research recipes | |
patterns-companies.md | Company research recipes | |
patterns-news.md | Current-events research recipes | |
patterns-papers.md | Academic paper recipes | |
patterns-people.md | People search recipes | |
patterns-relationships.md | Multi-entity relationship research |
Error Handling
| Error | Recovery | |
|---|---|---|
EXA_API_KEY not configured | Set environment variable or pass --api-key | |
| Search/fetch HTTP 408/429/5xx | Automatic retry with exponential backoff (max 4 attempts, capped by --max-retry-wait) | |
| Agent create network/408/429/5xx | Single attempt; report uncertain upstream state and do not create a duplicate | |
| Agent running deadline | Resume the same ID with agent_run --run-id ... | |
| HTTP 401 | Verify API key | |
| Timeout | Reduce --num-results or retry |
Output Format
All commands print JSON (ensure_ascii=False, indent 2) to stdout. With --out <file>, the response JSON is written to that path and stdout becomes {"status":"ok","file":"<file>"}. Errors go to stderr as {"error":"<message>"} with non-zero exit.
Agent creation and interruption additionally emit one-line JSON progress events to stderr so the retained run ID remains recoverable without corrupting stdout.