@bigknoxy/exa-cli

A CLI wrapper for the Exa MCP server. Use Exa's powerful search, crawl, and research capabilities from the command line - optimized for LLM tool usage.

Why exa-cli?

• Free tier support - Uses Exa's free MCP tier (no API key required)
• LLM-optimized - CLI tools are more efficient for LLMs than MCP protocol
• All Exa tools - Web search, code search, crawling, company research, people search, and deep research

Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bigknoxy/exa-cli/main/install.sh | sh

npm

npm install -g @bigknoxy/exa-cli

Run directly with npx

npx @bigknoxy/exa-cli search "your query"

Uninstall

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bigknoxy/exa-cli/main/uninstall.sh | sh

Or with npm:

npm uninstall -g @bigknoxy/exa-cli

Note: The uninstall script will leave your config file (~/.exarc) in place. Remove it manually with rm ~/.exarc if desired.

Commands

exa search <query>

Search the web for any topic.

exa search "latest AI news 2026" --num 10
exa search "typescript best practices" --type fast --format json

Options:

• --num - Number of results (default: 8)
• --type - Search type: auto or fast (default: auto)
• --livecrawl - Live crawl mode: fallback or preferred (default: fallback)
• --format - Output format: text, json, or markdown (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa code <query>

Search for code examples and documentation.

exa code "React useState hook TypeScript" --tokens 3000
exa code "express middleware authentication" --format markdown

Options:

• --tokens - Token count 1000-50000 (default: 5000)
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa crawl <url>

Extract content from a specific URL.

exa crawl https://docs.exa.ai --max-chars 5000
exa crawl https://example.com/article --format json

Options:

• --max-chars - Maximum characters to extract (default: 3000)
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa company <name>

Research a company.

exa company Anthropic --num 5
exa company "OpenAI" --format json

Options:

• --num - Number of results (default: 3)
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa people <query>

Search for people and professional profiles.

exa people "VP Engineering AI startups" --num 10
exa people "machine learning researcher" --format json

Options:

• --num - Number of results (default: 5)
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa search-advanced <query>

Advanced search with full filter control.

exa search-advanced "AI agents 2026" \
  --category news \
  --include-domains techcrunch.com,wired.com \
  --start-date 2026-01-01 \
  --highlights

Options:

• --num - Number of results, max 100 (default: 10)
• --type - Search type: auto, fast, or neural
• --category - Category filter: company, research paper, news, tweet, personal site, people, financial report
• --include-domains - Comma-separated domains to include
• --exclude-domains - Comma-separated domains to exclude
• --start-date - Start published date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• --end-date - End published date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• --highlights - Enable highlights
• --summary - Enable summaries
• --livecrawl - Mode: never, fallback, preferred, always
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa research start <instructions>

Start an AI research agent for complex questions.

exa research start "Compare flagship GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel in 2026"
exa research start "Analyze the electric vehicle market trends" --model exa-research-pro

Options:

• --model - Research model: exa-research-fast, exa-research, exa-research-pro (default: exa-research-fast)
• --format - Output format (default: text)
• --api-key - Override API key

exa research check <id>

Check the status of a research task.

exa research check abc123...

exa config

Manage configuration stored in ~/.exarc.

exa config list              # Show all config
exa config set apiKey YOUR_KEY   # Set API key
exa config set output json   # Set default output format
exa config get apiKey        # Get a config value
exa config clear             # Reset to defaults

exa completion <shell>

Generate shell completion scripts.

# Auto-detect and install for current shell
exa completion --install

# Explicit shell
exa completion bash --install

# Dry-run to see what would happen
exa completion --install --dry-run

# Manual installation (output script to stdout)
exa completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/exa
exa completion zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_exa
exa completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/exa.fish

Configuration

Configuration is stored in ~/.exarc:

{
  "apiKey": "your-api-key",
  "output": "text",
  "defaultNum": 8
}

API Key

The CLI works with the free MCP tier by default (no API key required). To get higher rate limits:

1. Get an API key from https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys
2. Set it via config: exa config set apiKey YOUR_KEY
3. Or use --api-key flag per command
4. Or set EXA_API_KEY environment variable

Output Formats

• text (default) - Human-readable with colors
• json - Raw JSON output for scripting
• markdown - Markdown formatted with links

Development

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/bigknoxy/exa-cli.git
cd exa-cli
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Test
npm test

# Development mode
npm run dev search "test query"

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• npm or bun

License

MIT