Pi Exa

Web search, fetching, and deep research for your Pi Agent. Powered by Exa.

No API key needed for web search and fetch. Works out of the box, install the extension and your agent can start using Exa search and fetch.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8bc51126-f212-4ad7-813b-705197a972e8

Why Exa for your Agent

• Free - 1000 requests/month for web search and fetch, via the Exa MCP server
• Semantic search - understands intent, not just keyword searches
• LLM-friendly results - Exa returns clean snippets instead of dumping entire sites that nuke your context window (through Exa Highlights)
• Get what you want - Your agent can make sense of Exa's search options and filters to get you narrowed results

Install

pi install npm:pi-exa

Optional: Exa API key for the deep search tool. To register your key:

pi /exa-login

Features

MCP

• Use web search and content fetching with no API key required
• Lazy-loaded Exa MCP server that only connects on first tool call
• Cached MCP tool schemas, Pi registers MCP tools during startup without connecting to the MCP server
• Toggle paid Exa MCP usage with /exa-mcp-use-api-key on|off

Advanced Web Search

• Let your agent use every Exa search filter
• Disabled by default to save context (~1200 tokens)
• Enable or disable with /exa-advanced-search on|off

Deep Search

• Give your agent access to Deep Search via the Exa API, with deep-lite, deep, and deep-reasoning modes
• Requires an Exa API key via /exa-login or EXA_API_KEY env var
• Enable or disable with /exa-deep-search on|off

Docs

Commands

| command | description | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | /exa-login | Writes your Exa API key to .pi/agents/auth.json | | /exa-logout | Removes your API key from .pi/agents/auth.json | | /exa-status | Shows the Pi Exa extension status | | /exa-advanced-search on\|off | Toggles the advanced Exa web search tool | | /exa-deep-search on\|off | Toggles the Exa deep search tool. Requires an Exa API key | | /exa-mcp-use-api-key on\|off | Toggles use of your API key for Exa MCP server. You will be billed. Only use when you've reached your rate limit for free requests |

Tools

Always enabled:

| name | interface | description | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | web_search_exa | Exa MCP | General web search | | web_fetch_exa | Exa MCP | Get content of a specific webpage |

Toggle to enable/disable. Preferences persist across sessions:

| name | interface | description | | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | web_search_advanced_exa | Exa MCP | web_search_exa but with all filter parameters available (~1200 tokens to load into context) | | deep_search_exa | Exa API | For multi-step research or when answer requires synthesis from multiple sources. Disabled automatically when no Exa API key is available |

Bugs and suggestions

Open an issue!