# Exa — how to use (mcp.ai)

Connect your Exa account and use 18 tools for web scraping straight from your AI agent. Connect with your own API key. Exa focuses on data extraction and search, helping teams gather, analyze, and visualize information from websites, APIs, or internal databases.

## Option A — via MCP (recommended)
Remote MCP endpoint (HTTP, streamable): `https://api.mcp.ai/p_exa?ms=1787291520000`
Add it as a custom/remote MCP connector in your client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code…), then authenticate when prompted. Once connected, ask the agent to use the server's tools (e.g. `exa_answer`).

## Option B — via direct REST API
Base URL: `https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa`
Auth: `Authorization: Bearer sk_live_…` — create a workspace API key at https://mcp.ai/settings/api-keys
Discover endpoints: `GET https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/_endpoints`

### Endpoints
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/answer` — Generates a direct, citation-backed answer to a clear natural language question or topic using Exa's search, adept at both specific answers and detailed summaries for open-ended queries. Response cont
  - body: { text?: boolean, model?: string, query: string, stream?: boolean }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/create/import` — Tool to create a new import to upload data into a Webset. Use when you need to initialize an import before uploading the data file.
  - body: { csv?: object, size?: integer, count?: integer, title?: string, entity: object, format: string, metadata?: object }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/create/monitor` — Tool to create a new Monitor. Use when you need to schedule automated updates for a Webset without manual runs.
  - body: { cadence: object, behavior: object, metadata?: object, websetId: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/create/research` — Creates an asynchronous research task that explores the web, gathers sources, synthesizes findings, and returns results with citations. The API responds immediately with a researchId for polling compl
  - body: { model?: string, instructions: string, outputSchema?: object }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/create/webset` — Tool to create a new Webset with search, import, and enrichment setup. Use when you need to configure and seed a Webset in one call.
  - body: { import?: object[], search: object, metadata?: object, externalId?: string, enrichments?: object[] }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/delete/import` — Tool to delete an existing import. Use when you need to permanently remove an import by its ID.
  - body: { id: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/delete/webset` — Tool to delete a Webset. Use after confirming the Webset ID to permanently remove the Webset and all its items.
  - body: { id: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/find/similar` — DEPRECATED: /findSimilar is a legacy endpoint and is no longer recommended for new integrations. Migrate to EXA_SEARCH with type='deep-lite' or 'deep' passing a URL-shaped query, optionally with the n
  - body: { url: string, text?: boolean, summary?: boolean, highlights?: boolean, num_results?: integer }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/get/api/key` — Tool to retrieve details of a specific API key by its ID. Use when you need to fetch information about an API key in the team management context.
  - body: { apiKeyId: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/get/contents/action` — Retrieve text / highlights / summary / subpages from URLs. The endpoint returns HTTP 200 even when individual URLs fail — always inspect `statuses[]` for CRAWL_NOT_FOUND, CRAWL_LIVECRAWL_TIMEOUT, SOUR
  - body: { ids?: string[], text?: boolean|object, urls?: string[], extras?: object, summary?: boolean|object, subpages?: integer, highlights?: boolean|object, maxAgeHours?: integer, subpageTarget?: string|string[], livecrawlTimeout?: integer }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/get/event` — Tool to get details of a specific event by its ID. Use when you have an event ID and need its full details.
  - body: { id: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/get/research` — Tool to retrieve the status and results of a previously created research task. Use the unique researchId returned from POST /research/v1 to poll until the task is finished.
  - body: { events?: boolean, stream?: boolean, researchId: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/list/events` — Tool to list all events that have occurred in the system. Use when you need to paginate through the event history.
  - body: { limit?: integer, types?: string[], cursor?: string, createdAfter?: string, createdBefore?: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/list/imports` — Tool to list all imports for the Webset. Use when you need to paginate through and monitor import jobs.
  - body: { limit?: integer, cursor?: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/list/research` — Tool to retrieve a paginated list of your research tasks. Use when you need to view or monitor research jobs with cursor-based pagination.
  - body: { limit?: integer, cursor?: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/list/webhooks` — Tool to list all webhooks for Websets. Use when you need to view existing webhooks and paginate through results.
  - body: { limit?: integer, cursor?: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/search` — Web search via the Exa engine. Returns ranked results with optional per-result text/highlights/summary (set the nested `contents` object). For agent workflows prefer `contents.highlights=true` — 10× f
  - body: { type?: string, query: string, category?: string, contents?: object, compliance?: string, moderation?: boolean, numResults?: integer, excludeText?: string[], includeText?: string[], outputSchema?: object, systemPrompt?: string, userLocation?: string, excludeDomains?: string[], includeDomains?: string[], endPublishedDate?: string, additionalQueries?: string[], startPublishedDate?: string }
- `POST https://api.mcp.ai/api/exa/update/import` — Tool to update an import configuration by ID. Use when you need to modify an import's title or metadata.
  - body: { id: string, title?: string, metadata?: object }

## Example prompts
- "What can I do in Exa?"
- "Show me a summary of my Exa account"

## More
- Page: https://mcp.ai/exa
- Agent spec (llms.txt): https://mcp.ai/exa/llms.txt
- Postman collection: https://mcp.ai/exa/postman.json