Exa Web Search (Free)#

Neural search for web, code, and company research. No API key required.

Setup#

Verify mcporter is configured:

bash

mcporter list exa

If not listed:

bash

mcporter config add exa https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp

Core Tools#

web_search_exa#

Search web for current info, news, or facts.

bash

mcporter call 'exa.web_search_exa(query: "latest AI news 2026", numResults: 5)'

Parameters:

• query - Search query
• numResults (optional, default: 8)
• type (optional) - "auto", "fast", or "deep"

get_code_context_exa#

Find code examples and docs from GitHub, Stack Overflow.

bash

mcporter call 'exa.get_code_context_exa(query: "React hooks examples", tokensNum: 3000)'

Parameters:

• query - Code/API search query
• tokensNum (optional, default: 5000) - Range: 1000-50000

company_research_exa#

Research companies for business info and news.

bash

mcporter call 'exa.company_research_exa(companyName: "Anthropic", numResults: 3)'

Parameters:

• companyName - Company name
• numResults (optional, default: 5)

Advanced Tools (Optional)#

Six additional tools available by updating config URL:

• web_search_advanced_exa - Domain/date filters
• deep_search_exa - Query expansion
• crawling_exa - Full page extraction
• people_search_exa - Professional profiles
• deep_researcher_start/check - AI research agent

Enable all tools:

bash

mcporter config add exa-full "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,get_code_context_exa,deep_search_exa,crawling_exa,company_research_exa,people_search_exa,deep_researcher_start,deep_researcher_check"

# Then use:
mcporter call 'exa-full.deep_search_exa(query: "AI safety research")'

Tips#

• Web: Use type: "fast" for quick lookup, "deep" for thorough research
• Code: Lower tokensNum (1000-2000) for focused, higher (5000+) for comprehensive
• See examples.md for more patterns

Resources#

• GitHub
• npm
• Docs