How to connect the Exa MCP server

Before you start

• Without sign-in or an API key, search and fetch work at a free rate limit and agent_run is unavailable. Agent runs are usage-based and need OAuth or an API key; usage belongs to your Exa team. docs.exa.ai/reference

Authentication

Your client → Exa MCP

No authentication. docs.exa.ai/referenceregistry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1

Exa MCP → Exa API

Not established by this guide.

Steps

1. Open Exa's MCP setup instructions for your client

   docs.exa.ai/reference/exa-mcp
2. Add the Exa MCP server to your client

   Add https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp as a remote MCP server that uses the Streamable HTTP transport (often labelled "http"). Exa also publishes a ChatGPT and Codex plugin, a Claude Code plugin, a Claude connector and a Cursor Marketplace listing, which sign you in with OAuth.

   docs.exa.ai/referenceregistry.modelcontextprotocol.io/v0.1
3. Recommended for interactive clients: sign in with OAuth

   Exa recommends OAuth for interactive clients and production use. In a client that supports MCP OAuth, connect to https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?login instead; the client discovers Exa's authorization server and opens the browser sign-in.

   docs.exa.ai/reference
4. For clients without MCP OAuth, use an API key

   Create an API key in the Exa dashboard and send it in the x-api-key header. Keep the key in a secret store, not in shared configuration.

   docs.exa.ai/reference
5. Optional: choose which tools the client sees

   Exa's tools URL parameter selects the tools. An explicit list replaces the defaults, so include every tool you want, including web_search_exa and web_fetch_exa.

   docs.exa.ai/reference
6. List the server's tools

   Your client should list the server's tools. That confirms the connection, not every API permission.

   docs.exa.ai/reference

What we observed

• 5 Nov 2026: HTTP 200; the server returned an initialize result (exa-search-server 3.5.0) without credentials and no WWW-Authenticate challenge.
• 5 Nov 2026: initialize and tools/list succeeded without credentials from the API Tracker browser explorer: 2 tools (web_search_exa, web_fetch_exa). A web_search_exa call also returned results.