Agent skill

Exa Search

Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedProductivity & Automation

Install Exa Search

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .claude/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Paste into Claude Code

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .claude/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

$skill-installer

$skill-installer install https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search

Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a codex

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search --agent codex

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .agents/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.

Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/

Paste into Codex

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .agents/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a cursor

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search --agent cursor

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .cursor/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.

Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/

Paste into Cursor

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .cursor/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

gemini skills install

$ gemini skills install https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git --path exa-search

--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a gemini-cli

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search --agent gemini-cli

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .gemini/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.

Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into Gemini CLI

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .gemini/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search

Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a github-copilot

Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .github/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.

GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into GitHub Copilot

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .github/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

skills CLI

$ npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a opencode

OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.

GitHub CLI

$ gh skill install mxyhi/ok-skills exa-search --agent opencode

Project scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.

Manual copy

$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/exa-search .opencode/skills/exa-search && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.

OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/

Paste into OpenCode

Install the "exa-search" agent skill from https://github.com/mxyhi/ok-skills/tree/main/exa-search into .opencode/skills/exa-search/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "exa-search", then confirm the skill loads.

OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.

Facts

Skill name: exa-search
GitHub stars: 494
Token cost: ~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length: 460 words
Files: 2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo: 4
Repo updated: Oct 9, 2026
First seen: Oct 7, 2026
Licence: Apache-2.0

At a glance

Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research.

Works in 4 steps: POST initialize; keep returned… → POST notifications/initialized with that… → POST tools/list or tools/call with that… → …
Tasks that involve Web search
SKILL.md covers Current Source Of Truth, Tool Choice, Core Parameters and Curl Pattern, plus 2 more sections
Calls curl and jq; reaches mcp.exa.ai and docs.exa.ai

What it does

Exa Search is an agent skill from mxyhi/ok-skills. Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research. Prefer current hosted tool schemas and note deprecated tools.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/exa-tools.md`).

It sits in Productivity & Automation, covering Web search and MCP servers. It works with Model Context Protocol and Exa. The repository describes itself as: Curated AI coding agent skills and AGENTS.md playbooks for Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, and other SKILL.md-compatible tools. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

Tasks that involve Web search
Tasks that involve MCP servers

Example prompts

“/exa-search”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

POST initialize; keep returned Mcp-Session-Id response header.
POST notifications/initialized with that header.
POST tools/list or tools/call with that header.
If response is text/event-stream, parse JSON from data: lines.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 03fc6e2. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
- curl
- jq
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:
- mcp.exa.ai
- docs.exa.ai
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Exa Search loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.9k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 39 tokens; SKILL.md has 460 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it: ~39
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches: ~1.6k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them: ~3.9k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mxyhi/ok-skills at commit 03fc6e2, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mxyhi). 460 words, ~1,634 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/exa-search/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.

name: exa-search
description: Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research. Prefer current hosted tool schemas and note deprecated tools.

Exa MCP Search

Use this skill when online search, page fetch, code/docs lookup, company research, people research, or Exa MCP parameter checks are needed.

Current Source Of Truth

Hosted MCP endpoint: https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp
Official source: exa-labs/exa-mcp-server@15ffb50519e719dc791cdc750ce5ed1934c0a1ed
Current npm package checked: exa-mcp-server@3.4.1; verified tarball SHA-256 62379fab5750cbc8334f096ff986ab1b7152488afffab5b0e275995310b6e978
Tool schemas can change. Before adding new parameters, verify with tools/list through a normal HTTP client.

Direct MCP HTTP is the required invocation model for this skill. curl is fine, but keep the session and SSE parsing in small shell helpers instead of repeating low-level flags at every call site.

Tool Choice

Need	Prefer	Notes
General current web search	`web_search_exa`	Simple search. Only `query` and `numResults`.
Filtered search, dates, domains, categories, summaries, highlights, subpages	`web_search_advanced_exa`	Enable explicitly in `tools=`. Use this for company/people/papers/news filters.
Read known URLs fully	`web_fetch_exa`	Use after search when highlights are insufficient.
Code examples/docs	`web_search_exa`	`get_code_context_exa` still exists but is deprecated.
Company research	`web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"company"`	`company_research_exa` still exists but is deprecated.
People/profiles	`web_search_advanced_exa` with `category:"people"`	`people_search_exa` still exists but is deprecated.

Core Parameters

`web_search_exa`

query required: semantically rich natural-language query. Can include category:company or category:people.
numResults optional: default 10.
No type, livecrawl, contextMaxCharacters, or tokensNum on current hosted schema.

json

{"query":"latest AI safety research June 2026","numResults":10}

`web_search_advanced_exa`

query required.
Common optional filters: numResults, type (auto | fast | instant), category, includeDomains, excludeDomains, startPublishedDate, endPublishedDate, startCrawlDate, endCrawlDate, includeText, excludeText, userLocation, moderation, additionalQueries.
Content controls: textMaxCharacters, contextMaxCharacters, enableSummary, summaryQuery, enableHighlights, highlightsMaxCharacters, highlightsQuery, maxAgeHours, livecrawlTimeout, subpages, subpageTarget.
Deprecated highlight controls: highlightsNumSentences, highlightsPerUrl; prefer highlightsMaxCharacters.
Categories include company, publication, news, pdf, github, personal site, people, financial report.

json

{
  "query":"Anthropic funding valuation 2026",
  "category":"news",
  "includeDomains":["techcrunch.com","bloomberg.com"],
  "startPublishedDate":"2026-01-01",
  "numResults":10,
  "type":"auto",
  "enableHighlights":true
}

`web_fetch_exa`

urls required: array of URLs. Batch multiple URLs in one call.
maxCharacters optional: default 3000.

json

{"urls":["https://docs.exa.ai/reference"],"maxCharacters":5000}

Show full SKILL.md (191 more words)Show less

Deprecated But Still Available

get_code_context_exa: use web_search_exa instead. Current schema is query, numResults; old tokensNum is obsolete.
company_research_exa: use web_search_advanced_exa with category:"company" instead. Schema is companyName, numResults; default 3.
people_search_exa: use web_search_advanced_exa with category:"people" instead.
crawling_exa: use web_fetch_exa instead.
deep_search_exa: use web_search_advanced_exa instead; current hosted MCP requires OAuth or an API key when this tool is requested.
deep_researcher_start / deep_researcher_check: deprecated; use Exa Research API directly when needed.

Curl Pattern

POST initialize; keep returned Mcp-Session-Id response header.
POST notifications/initialized with that header.
POST tools/list or tools/call with that header.
If response is text/event-stream, parse JSON from data: lines.

Minimal Curl Helper

bash

EXA_URL="https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_exa,web_search_advanced_exa,web_fetch_exa"
EXA_SESSION_ID=""

exa_rpc() {
  local payload="$1"
  local session_header=()
  local response

  if [ -n "$EXA_SESSION_ID" ]; then
    session_header=(-H "Mcp-Session-Id: $EXA_SESSION_ID")
  fi

  response="$(curl -isS "$EXA_URL" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
    "${session_header[@]}" \
    --data "$payload")"

  if [ -z "$EXA_SESSION_ID" ]; then
    EXA_SESSION_ID="$(printf '%s\n' "$response" | awk 'tolower($0) ~ /^mcp-session-id:/ { sub(/^[^:]+:[[:space:]]*/, ""); gsub(/\r/, ""); print; exit }')"
  fi

  printf '%s\n' "$response" | sed -n 's/^data: //p'
}

exa_init() {
  exa_rpc '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"exa-curl","version":"0.1.0"}}}' >/dev/null
  exa_rpc '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}' >/dev/null
}

exa_call() {
  local tool_name="$1"
  local arguments_json="$2"
  jq -nc --arg name "$tool_name" --argjson arguments "$arguments_json" \
    '{jsonrpc:"2.0",id:2,method:"tools/call",params:{name:$name,arguments:$arguments}}' |
    while IFS= read -r payload; do exa_rpc "$payload"; done
}

exa_init
exa_call web_search_exa '{"query":"latest AI safety research","numResults":5}'

Tool output format differs: web_search_exa returns formatted text, web_search_advanced_exa returns JSON text, and web_fetch_exa returns fetched page text.

Research Practice

For simple lookup, run one targeted web_search_exa call.
For dated/current questions, calculate exact date ranges first and pass startPublishedDate / endPublishedDate through web_search_advanced_exa.
For source-heavy tasks, fetch only the best URLs with web_fetch_exa; do not dump raw results into the final answer.
For company/people/paper/news workflows, prefer web_search_advanced_exa categories rather than deprecated specialized tools.
Mention source uncertainty when Exa returns sparse, conflicting, or old results.

References

Tool fields: references/exa-tools.md

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in exa-search of mxyhi/ok-skills.

SKILL.md
references/exa-tools.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 03fc6e2

Compare with similar skills

Exa Search next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Exa Search compared with similar skills
Skill	Stars	Used in	Tokens	Auto-check	Licence	Repo updated
Exa Search this skillmxyhi/ok-skills	494	—	~1.6k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	2 days ago
Exa Neural Search via MCPaffaan-m/ECC	277k	4 repos	~1.1k	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	today
Agent Searchlennney/agent-search-mcp	110	—	~1.9k	Automated safety check: Pass	Apache-2.0	20 days ago
Serply Web Searchdavepoon/buildwithclaude	3.6k	—	~865	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	2 days ago
You Web Searchdavepoon/buildwithclaude	3.6k	—	~725	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	2 days ago
Huge AI Searchwangwingzero/huge-ai-search	144	—	~563	Automated safety check: Pass	MIT	1 mo ago

Similar skills

Exa Neural Search via MCP
affaan-m/ECC
Searches the web, code, companies and people through the Exa MCP server, with notes on setup, the web_search_exa tool and treating results as untrusted data.
277k GitHub starsUsed in 4 repos~1.1k tokens
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
Agent Search
lennney/agent-search-mcp
Use Agent Search MCP for free-first English and Chinese web search with compact evidence and minimal tool calls.
110 GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated 20 days ago
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
Serply Web Search
davepoon/buildwithclaude
Search Google, Bing, Google News and Google Scholar, and read public pages, through the Serply MCP server.
3.6k GitHub stars~865 tokensUpdated 2 days ago
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
You Web Search
davepoon/buildwithclaude
Search the live web and read URLs through the You.com MCP server.
3.6k GitHub stars~725 tokensUpdated 2 days ago
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
Huge AI Search
wangwingzero/huge-ai-search
Searches the live web through Google AI Mode via Huge AI Search (MCP or CLI).
144 GitHub stars~563 tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
Perplexity Web MCP Bridge
jacob-bd/perplexity-web-mcp
Searches the web and queries premium AI models through Perplexity's own web interface, tracking quota carefully across quick, Pro and Deep Research tiers.
198 GitHub stars~7.6k tokensUpdated 6 days ago
Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed

Questions about Exa Search

What does Exa Search do?

Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research. Exa Search is an agent skill from mxyhi/ok-skills. Use Exa MCP for current web, code/docs, company, people, and page-fetch research.

When should I use Exa Search?

Exa Search fits situations like: tasks that involve Web search; tasks that involve MCP servers.

How do I install Exa Search in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (exa-search in mxyhi/ok-skills) into .claude/skills/exa-search in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Exa Search in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (exa-search in mxyhi/ok-skills) into .agents/skills/exa-search in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Exa Search in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add mxyhi/ok-skills --skill exa-search -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/exa-search, .gemini/skills/exa-search, .github/skills/exa-search and .opencode/skills/exa-search in your project.

What does Exa Search need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Exa Search needs the command-line tools its instructions call (curl and jq).

Does Exa Search access the network?

SKILL.md names 2 domains. In commands or code: mcp.exa.ai and docs.exa.ai; the agent is likely to contact these when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Exa Search safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Exa Search use?

Exa Search is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Exa Search use?

About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 2.2k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Exa Search?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Exa Search: Exa Neural Search via MCP (affaan-m/ECC, 277k stars), Agent Search (lennney/agent-search-mcp, 110 stars), Serply Web Search (davepoon/buildwithclaude, 3.6k stars) and You Web Search (davepoon/buildwithclaude, 3.6k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Exa Search?

mxyhi (a GitHub user) maintains it in mxyhi/ok-skills, which has 494 GitHub stars. The repository holds 4 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: mxyhi/ok-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.

Install Exa Search

Facts

At a glance

What it does

When your agent uses it

Example prompts

Workflow steps

What it can do on your machine

Tool permissions

Runs code

Network

Credentials

Context cost

Safety

SKILL.md

Exa MCP Search

Current Source Of Truth

Tool Choice

Core Parameters

web_search_exa

web_search_advanced_exa

web_fetch_exa

Deprecated But Still Available

Curl Pattern

Minimal Curl Helper

Research Practice

References

Files

Compare with similar skills

Similar skills

More from mxyhi/ok-skills

Related

Questions about Exa Search

`web_search_exa`

`web_search_advanced_exa`

`web_fetch_exa`