---
title: "Exa MCP Server for ToolPiper · ModelPiper"
description: "Neural web search and content retrieval for AI. Exa is a search engine built for embeddings rather than keywords, so it is good at the queries where Google leans on exact terms: 'find pages like this one' or 'startups do"
canonical: "https://modelpiper.com/mcp-tools/exa"
---

# Exa MCP Server for ToolPiper · ModelPiper

> Neural web search and content retrieval for AI. Exa is a search engine built for embeddings rather than keywords, so it is good at the queries where Google leans on exact terms: 'find pages like this one' or 'startups do

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# Exa MCP Server

✓ verified

Neural web search and content retrieval for AI.

Install Exa in ToolPiper

Don't have ToolPiper? We'll take you to the download.

[Open repository →](https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server)

Publisher

[Exa](https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server)

License

MIT

Transport

Local subprocess

Tools

4

## What this server does

Exa is a search engine built for embeddings rather than keywords, so it is good at the queries where Google leans on exact terms: 'find pages like this one' or 'startups doing X that are not Y'. The MCP server exposes neural and keyword search, full-text content retrieval for results, similarity search from a seed URL, and a research-paper mode. Use it when you want semantically relevant sources rather than a ranked keyword list.

## Tools included

-   web\_search\_exa
    
    Run a neural or keyword web search.
    
-   get\_contents
    
    Fetch the full text of search result pages.
    
-   find\_similar
    
    Find pages similar to a given URL.
    
-   research\_paper\_search
    
    Search academic and research content.
    

The authoritative list comes from the server's tools/list at runtime. This catalog entry may lag the upstream until the next ToolPiper release.

## Install in ToolPiper

ToolPiper handles the JSON configuration. Click Install, fill in any required tokens, and the server is ready in your chat.

Install Exa in ToolPiper

Don't have ToolPiper? We'll take you to the download.

## Install in another client

Install in another MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Continue, Cline)

Claude Desktop Cursor Continue Cline

Add this to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude\_desktop\_config.json.

```
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

Copy

## Example prompts

-   "Find recent articles similar to this blog post on local-first software."
    
    Copy
-   "Search for companies building on-device speech recognition and summarize each."
    
    Copy
-   "Find research papers on retrieval-augmented generation from the last year."
    
    Copy

## Security notes

The API key gates billing on Exa's hosted search. Treat it as a credential and rotate it from the Exa dashboard if it leaks. Each search and content fetch costs against your plan. Returned web content is untrusted input; do not let the model act on instructions embedded in it.

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