exa-search

Exa Web Search

Search the web using Exa's AI-powered search API. Exa provides semantic search capabilities optimized for AI applications.

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/exa-search/config.json

{
  "api_key": "your-exa-api-key-here"
}

Getting an API key

1. Go to https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys
2. Sign up or log in to your Exa account
3. Create a new API key

Troubleshooting config

If requests fail, verify the config:

# Check config exists and is valid JSON
cat ~/.config/exa-search/config.json | jq .

# Test connection
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $(jq -r .api_key ~/.config/exa-search/config.json)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "test", "numResults": 1}' | jq '.results | length'

Common issues:

• 401 Unauthorized: API key is invalid → get a new key from dashboard
• Connection refused: Network issue or API is down
• null or parse error: Config file is missing or malformed

If config is broken, guide the user to provide their Exa API key, then create/update the config:

mkdir -p ~/.config/exa-search
cat > ~/.config/exa-search/config.json << 'EOF'
{
  "api_key": "USER_PROVIDED_API_KEY"
}
EOF

Endpoint Selection Guide

Choose the appropriate endpoint based on user intent:

Endpoint	Use When
/search	Need to find web pages, research topics, or get content from multiple sources
/contents	Have specific URLs and need to extract their full content
/answer	Need a direct, concise answer to a factual question
/research/v1	Need in-depth research with structured output, multi-step analysis, or comprehensive reports

API Examples

Load API key

EXA_API_KEY=$(jq -r .api_key ~/.config/exa-search/config.json)

1. Search (/search)

Semantic search with optional content extraction. Returns results with their contents.

# Basic search
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "latest developments in AI agents",
    "numResults": 10
  }' | jq '.results[] | {title, url, publishedDate}'

# Search with content extraction
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "best practices for RAG systems",
    "numResults": 5,
    "contents": {
      "text": true,
      "highlights": {
        "numSentences": 3,
        "highlightsPerUrl": 2
      },
      "summary": {}
    }
  }' | jq '.results[] | {title, url, summary, highlights}'

# Search with date filters and domain restrictions
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "OpenAI announcements",
    "numResults": 10,
    "startPublishedDate": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
    "includeDomains": ["openai.com", "techcrunch.com", "theverge.com"],
    "contents": {
      "text": {"maxCharacters": 1000},
      "summary": {}
    }
  }' | jq

# Search with category filter
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "transformer architecture papers",
    "numResults": 10,
    "category": "research paper",
    "contents": {
      "text": true,
      "summary": {}
    }
  }' | jq

# Deep search for comprehensive results
curl -s -X POST "https://api.exa.ai/search" \
  -H "x-api-key: $EXA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "climate change mitigation strategies",
    "type": "deep",
    "numResults": 20,
    "contents": {
      "text": true,
      "summary": {}
    }
  }' | jq