Exa Web Search (Free)

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

Setup

Verify mcporter is configured:

mcporter list exa

If not listed:

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

Core Tools

websearchexa

Search web for current info, news, or facts.

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"

getcodecontext_exa

Find code examples and docs from GitHub, Stack Overflow.

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

companyresearchexa

Research companies for business info and news.

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:

• websearchadvanced_exa - Domain/date filters
• deepsearchexa - Query expansion
• crawling_exa - Full page extraction
• peoplesearchexa - Professional profiles
• deepresearcherstart/check - AI research agent

Enable all tools:

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](references/examples.md) for more patterns

Resources

• GitHub
• npm
• Docs