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Exa search

OpenClaw supports Exa AI as a web_search provider. Exa offers neural, keyword, and hybrid search modes with built-in content extraction (highlights, text, summaries).

Get an API key

Section titled “Get an API key”

  1. Create an account

    Sign up at exa.ai and generate an API key from your dashboard.

  2. Store the key

    Set EXA_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, or configure via:

    Terminal window
    openclaw configure --section web

Config

Section titled “Config”
{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      exa: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "exa-...", // optional if EXA_API_KEY is set
            baseUrl: "https://api.exa.ai", // optional; OpenClaw appends /search
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "exa",
      },
    },
  },
}

Environment alternative: set EXA_API_KEY in the Gateway environment. For a gateway install, put it in ~/.openclaw/.env.

Base URL override

Section titled “Base URL override”

Set plugins.entries.exa.config.webSearch.baseUrl when Exa search requests should go through a compatible proxy or alternate Exa endpoint. OpenClaw normalizes bare hosts by prepending https:// and appends /search unless the path already ends there. The resolved endpoint is included in the search cache key, so results from different Exa endpoints are not shared.

Tool parameters

Section titled “Tool parameters”
Search query. Results to return (1–100). Search mode. Time filter. Results after this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). Results before this date (`YYYY-MM-DD`). Content extraction options (see below).

Content extraction

Section titled “Content extraction”

Exa can return extracted content alongside search results. Pass a contents object to enable:

await web_search({
  query: "transformer architecture explained",
  type: "neural",
  contents: {
    text: true, // full page text
    highlights: { numSentences: 3 }, // key sentences
    summary: true, // AI summary
  },
});
Contents optionTypeDescription
textboolean | { maxCharacters }Extract full page text
highlightsboolean | { maxCharacters, query, numSentences, highlightsPerUrl }Extract key sentences
summaryboolean | { query }AI-generated summary

Search modes

Section titled “Search modes”
ModeDescription
autoExa picks the best mode (default)
neuralSemantic/meaning-based search
fastQuick keyword search
deepThorough deep search
deep-reasoningDeep search with reasoning
instantFastest results

Notes

Section titled “Notes”
  • If no contents option is provided, Exa defaults to { highlights: true } so results include key sentence excerpts
  • Results preserve highlightScores and summary fields from the Exa API response when available
  • Result descriptions are resolved from highlights first, then summary, then full text — whichever is available
  • freshness and date_after/date_before cannot be combined — use one time-filter mode
  • Up to 100 results can be returned per query (subject to Exa search-type limits)
  • Results are cached for 15 minutes by default (configurable via cacheTtlMinutes)
  • Exa is an official API integration with structured JSON responses
Section titled “Related”