exacli

name	exacli
description	Exa AI search API via CLI. Activate when user wants to search the web, find code examples, extract content from websites, get AI answers with sources, or perform automated research. Examples: "search for AI startups", "find rate limiter code in Go", "extract content from this URL", "research this topic", "find similar pages".

Exacli

Rules

1. Match output format to context: use default for metadata-only results, --toon when fetching content, --json only when piping to jq
2. User must have setup exacli login to store in OS keychain
3. Use --text to include full content, --highlights for snippets
4. Use --poll with research tasks to wait for results

Command Selection

Pick the right command first — wrong command = wrong output:

Goal	Command
Find code examples / implementations	exacli code
Web search with content	exacli search --text or --highlights
Get a synthesized answer with citations	exacli answer
Deep multi-step research report	exacli research --poll (fall back to exacli answer on 404)
Fetch specific URL content	exacli contents <url>
Find pages similar to a URL	exacli similar <url>

Output Modes

Measured on 10 results with no content flags (--text/--highlights/--summary off):

Flag	Chars	Est. tokens	Best for
(none)	~3,300	~830	Agent contexts with metadata only — omits null/empty fields
--toon	~4,200	~1,050	Agent contexts with content — flat key: value, no formatting overhead
--json	~5,000	~1,250	Scripting only — most verbose due to null fields + structural chars

Key insight: --json is ~50% larger than the default for the same data because it includes "highlights": null, "highlightScores": null, "text": "", "summary": "" on every result. Prefer default or --toon to keep context small; reach for --json only when piping to jq.

# Metadata-only: default is most compact
exacli search "query"

# With content: --toon is most compact
exacli search "query" --text --toon

# Scripting: --json when you need jq field extraction
exacli search "query" --json | jq '.results[] | {title, url}'
exacli research-status "task-id" --json | jq '{status, output}'

Commands

code

Search for code examples using the Exa Code API. Use this when the user needs actual code, implementations, or code-focused results — not search.

exacli code <query> [options]

Option	Description
--tokens-num <n>	Token budget: dynamic, 1000, 5000, 50000 (default: dynamic)

search

exacli search "query" [options]

Option	Description
--num-results <n>	Number of results (default: 10)
--type <auto|fast|deep|instant>	Search type
--text	Include full text content
--highlights	Include relevant highlights
--summary	Include AI-generated summary
--category <category>	Filter by category
--include-domains <list>	Comma-separated domains to include
--exclude-domains <list>	Comma-separated domains to exclude
--start-date <date>	Start date (ISO format)
--end-date <date>	End date (ISO format)
--autoprompt	Use autoprompt to enhance query

contents

Retrieve content from specific URLs.

exacli contents <url...> [options]

Options: --text, --highlights, --summary, --max-age-hours <n>

similar

Find pages similar to a given URL.

exacli similar <url> [options]

Options: --num-results <n>, --exclude-source-domain, --text, --highlights, --summary, --category <category>

answer

Get AI-powered answers with source citations.

exacli answer "query" [options]

Options: --text, --model <exa|exa-pro>, --stream, --system-prompt <text>

research

Create automated research tasks. If this returns a 404, fall back to exacli answer.

exacli research "instructions" [options]

Options: --model <fast|regular|pro>, --poll, --poll-interval <ms>, --timeout <ms>

research-status / research-list

exacli research-status <task-id>
exacli research-list [--limit <n>] [--cursor <token>]

login / logout

exacli login    # store API key in OS keychain
exacli logout   # remove API key from OS keychain

Global Flags

Flag	Description
--api-key <key>	Exa API key
--json	Output raw JSON
--toon	Output compact TOON format
-h, --help	Show help

Search Categories

company, research paper, news, pdf, tweet, personal site, financial report, people

Search Types

Type	Description
auto	Automatically chosen (default)
fast	Quick results
deep	Thorough, best for research
instant	Lowest latency

Research Models

Model	Description
fast	Quick facts
regular	Balanced (default)
pro	Highest quality

Common Patterns

# Code search (use code, not search, for code examples)
exacli code "rate limiter implementation Go" --tokens-num 5000

# Semantic search with content
exacli search "AI startups" --num-results 5 --text --toon

# Deep search for research
exacli search "transformer architecture" --type deep --highlights --toon

# Filter by category and date
exacli search "startup funding" --category news --start-date 2024-01-01

# Domain-specific search
exacli search "research" --include-domains "arxiv.org,openai.com"

# Extract content from URLs
exacli contents "https://example.com/article" --text --toon

# Find similar pages
exacli similar "https://openai.com/research" --exclude-source-domain

# AI-powered answers
exacli answer "What is quantum computing?" --stream

# Research with polling (falls back to answer on 404)
exacli research "Latest AI developments" --poll
# fallback:
exacli answer "Latest AI developments" --text

# Check research status
exacli research-status "task-id" --json | jq '{status, output}'

# List research tasks
exacli research-list --limit 10 --json | jq '.data[] | {id, status}'