| name | exa-search |
| description | Semantic / neural web search via the Exa API. Use for conceptual, exploratory, or "find things like X" research where keyword search underperforms — e.g. "papers about agent memory", "companies similar to <X>", "blog posts arguing <position>". Trigger phrases: "search for", "find research/papers/articles on", "what's out there about", "find similar", "semantic search". Complements brave-search (use brave for fresh/news/exact-term). The `exa-search` CLI is on `$PATH` and emits the same JSON shape as brave-search.
|
Semantic web search with exa-search
exa-search is a CLI on $PATH that queries the Exa neural
search API and returns results in the same ddgs-compatible JSON shape as
brave-search — an array of {title, href, body} — so it's a drop-in alongside
the other search tools.
When to use which search backend
| Backend | Best for |
|---|
exa-search | Conceptual / semantic / exploratory queries: "frameworks like LangGraph", "research on agent memory", "find articles arguing X". Neural search finds relevant pages even when they don't contain your exact words. |
brave-search | Fresh / breaking / exact-term queries: news, a specific product page, a known title, anything time-sensitive. |
When a question has both an exploratory and a freshness angle, run both and merge — they surface different pages.
Usage
exa-search "open-source agent frameworks with durable execution"
exa-search text -k "open-source agent frameworks" -m 8 -o json
Output is a JSON array; each element has title, href, and body (a short
text excerpt from the page). Parse it the same way you parse brave-search
output.
Behavior and exit codes
| Exit | Meaning |
|---|
0 | Success — JSON array on stdout (may be [] if Exa found nothing). |
1 | EXA_API_KEY is not set. The wrapper can't run without it. |
2 | Empty query. |
3 / 4 | Exa API error (non-2xx) or a transport failure — a clear message is printed to stderr. |
Environment
| Variable | Purpose |
|---|
EXA_API_KEY | Required. Exa API key (free tier ~1,000 searches/month). In Azure deploys it is mounted from the exa-api-key Key Vault secret when exa_search_enabled = true. |
If exa-search exits 1, Exa isn't configured in this environment — fall back to
brave-search.
