exa-deep-search

name	exa-deep-search
description	Search, extract, and compare high-quality public sources with Exa through SandBase. Use when asked for deep web research, source discovery, current evidence, topic investigation, company research, or citation-ready findings.

Exa Deep Search

Turn Exa search into a focused, source-backed research brief. This Skill calls the named Exa capabilities in the SandBase API map through the SandBase MCP gateway. In a SandBase Agent, run the capabilities directly. In another compatible agent, require an authorized SandBase connection before starting; never request, print, or store an API key in the research output.

Read example workflows when the user needs a starting prompt or wants to understand the output.

Operating principles

• Start from the user's research question and decision context, not a generic search.
• Treat Exa results as evidence; treat model-generated synthesis, comparisons, and recommendations as judgment clearly separated from sources.
• Select search depth, time window, domains, and geography deliberately. State any assumption rather than silently defaulting.
• Optimize for source quality, recency, and relevance — not quantity.
• Cite every externally verifiable claim with a result URL and publication date (when available).
• Keep user research goals, company context, and strategy confidential unless sharing is explicitly requested.

Workflow

1. Frame the research question

Collect or infer: the topic or entity, time window, geography, trusted or excluded domains, audience for the deliverable, and how findings will be used. Classify the request as one or more of: landscape scan, deep evidence gathering, competitive intelligence, current news monitoring, or specific-source extraction.

When the research question is broad, propose 2–3 focused sub-queries and confirm scope before spending API calls.

2. Select and call SandBase capabilities

Read the SandBase API map before selecting tools. Use the listed tool_name through the SandBase gateway:

1. Call sandbase_describe_tool for the selected tool_name and read its current input schema.
2. Call sandbase_call_tool with that exact tool_name and only schema-defined arguments.
3. Keep the tool name, query, search parameters, and result metadata with the returned data.

3. Search with Exa

Use exa_search with parameters matched to the research need:

Research need	Recommended parameters
Current landscape	topic: "news", bounded start_published_date/end_published_date, include_highlights: true
Deep evidence	search_depth: "advanced", include_summary: true, request full text only for selected sources
Trusted sources only	include_domains for first-party, academic, or approved publishers
Competitive research	exclude_domains for the target's own site; separate queries per competitor
Validation or quick check	search_depth: "basic", num_results: 3–5

Tips:

• Write queries as natural-language statements of what a good result page would say, not short keyword strings. Exa responds best to semantic queries.
• Use category when available (e.g., "research paper", "company", "news") to narrow result types.
• Iterate: refine by entity, product, problem, event, or time period until evidence is sufficient.
• Request include_highlights: true to get relevant snippets without extracting full text for every result.

4. Extract selected sources

When deeper analysis of specific pages is needed, send selected URLs to exa_contents:

• Choose include_text: true for full page content when analyzing structure or extracting data.
• Choose include_highlights: true with a highlights_query to focus extraction on specific aspects.
• Choose include_summary: true for concise overviews when reviewing many pages.
• Use subpages only for explicit documentation, pricing, or API crawl tasks.
• Use max_age_hours: 0 only when freshness requires a live crawl; avoid for routine research.

If exa_contents is not yet available in the current Gateway, return the Search results and explicitly state that extraction is awaiting capability publication.

5. Synthesize findings

• Separate direct observations from interpretation.
• Group findings by theme, entity, or chronology as appropriate for the research question.
• Note disagreements between sources and evidence gaps.
• Propose follow-up queries for unresolved questions.

Query crafting tips

Good Exa queries describe the content of the ideal result page:

Poor query	Better query
AI agents	How enterprises evaluate AI agent platforms for production deployment
observability tools	Comparison of AI agent observability and tracing solutions 2025
competitor pricing	Pricing page for enterprise AI agent orchestration platform

• Add temporal context: "in 2025", "since January", "latest announcement".
• Add specificity: mention the industry, company size, technology stack, or use case.
• Use exclude_domains to avoid results you already know about.

Output

Return a structured research brief:

Source map

#	Title	URL	Published	Relevance
1	...	...	...	...

Key findings

Numbered findings, each citing source(s) by number.

Disagreements and evidence gaps

What sources disagree on, and what questions remain unanswered.

Suggested next queries

Follow-up Exa queries or alternative research paths.

Evidence rules

• Cite a result URL for every externally verifiable claim.
• Label a result's publication date as "unavailable" when Exa does not return one.
• Do not treat an Exa summary as a source quote; use it as an aid to select evidence, then cite the original URL.
• Do not call Exa Answer or Exa Agent endpoints. The user's Agent/LLM synthesizes the evidence.
• Do not copy long source passages; paraphrase and cite.
• Mark clearly when a finding is inferred from multiple sources vs. directly stated in one.

Failure handling

• If SandBase is unavailable or unauthorized, report the failed capability and ask the user to connect or authorize SandBase; do not silently substitute a direct provider API.
• If exa_search returns few or no results, try: broader query, different search_depth, removed domain filters, or a wider date range. Report if the topic genuinely lacks public coverage.
• If exa_contents is unavailable, deliver search results with highlights and explicitly note the extraction gap.
• If results are low-quality or off-topic, refine the query before reporting; explain what was tried.

Example tasks

• "Find the last 30 days of reliable sources about AI agent observability. Give me a five-source brief with gaps."
• "Research how enterprise teams evaluate AI agents. Prefer company and academic sources; exclude vendor blogs."
• "Compare the public arguments for and against a retrieval architecture. Use advanced search and cite each source."
• "Find recent funding announcements in the AI developer tools space. Only include sources from the last 7 days."
• "Extract the pricing and feature comparison from these three competitor pages: [URLs]."

Quality gate

Before delivering, verify that:

• Every finding cites at least one source URL.
• Observations are separated from model-generated interpretations.
• The search parameters (depth, dates, domains) match the stated research need.
• Evidence gaps and low-confidence findings are explicitly labeled.
• The deliverable format matches what the user requested.