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How to connect Exa to Claude

Connect Claude Web, Desktop and Cowork to Exa MCP. Summarize recent news articles on ai safety, find similar research papers to this url, and more using natural language, with authentication handled for you.

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Exa is a data extraction and search platform for gathering and analyzing information from websites, APIs, or databases. It helps teams quickly surface insights and automate data-driven workflows.

18 Tools

Introduction

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, available on the web, in the desktop app, and on mobile. Cowork is its agent for knowledge work, and it runs on all of those surfaces too. Connected to your apps, Claude can work with your files and services to accomplish complex tasks on your behalf.

This guide walks you through the easiest and most secure way to connect your Exa account to Claude via Composio Connect, enabling it to summarize recent news articles on AI safety, find similar research papers to this URL, create a webset for quarterly sales data, and more such actions on your behalf without compromising your account security.

Setup is the same on Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork, and you only need to do it once. The connector is tied to your account, so it's available in all three.

Also integrate Exa with

OpenAI Agents SDKClaude Agent SDKClaude CodeGrok BotCodexOpenClawHermesAtomic AgentGoogle ADKLangChainVercel AI SDKMastra AILlamaIndexCrewAIPydantic AIAutoGen

Connecting Exa to Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork

Two ways to add the Composio connector. Pick whichever you prefer.

1. Add with one click

Click the button. Claude opens with the Composio connector filled in. Click Add, then go to step 2.

Add to Claude

Add manually

In Claude Desktop, click Customize in the left sidebar, then select Connectors and click the + icon at the top.

Claude Desktop connectors screen with Add custom connector selected

Click Add custom connector and paste in the Composio MCP server URL:

bash
https://connect.composio.dev/mcp
Add custom connector dialog with Composio MCP server URL

2. Authorize in your browser

Click Connect. You'll be redirected to a browser window where you can authorize Composio to continue.

Composio authorization screen for Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork

3. Connect your Exa account

Back in Claude, ask it to connect to Exa or give it any Exa-related task.

For example, ask Claude to:

  • "Summarize recent news articles on AI safety"
  • "Find similar research papers to this URL"
  • "Create a webset for quarterly sales data"

It will prompt you to authenticate and authorize access.

That's it. Composio's tools are now available in Claude, and your Exa account is ready to use.

What is the Exa Claude Connector, and what's possible with it?

The Exa MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Exa account. It provides structured and secure access to your Exa data platform, so your agent can perform actions like extracting answers from web data, running semantic searches, managing imports, and automating monitoring across your datasets.

  • Citation-backed question answering: Have your agent generate direct, source-cited answers or detailed summaries for your research questions using Exa’s advanced search.
  • Semantic similarity search: Quickly find web pages or documents that are semantically related to a given URL, complete with highlights or summaries for context.
  • Data import and webset management: Let your agent create, configure, or delete imports and websets to streamline data gathering and enrichment workflows.
  • Automated data monitoring: Schedule and manage monitors for websets to keep your data fresh and up-to-date with minimal manual intervention.
  • Event tracking and retrieval: Access a full history of system events or fetch details for specific events to stay on top of activity within your Exa environment.

Troubleshooting

1. Why does Claude not use the Composio connector for Exa?

The connector can show as connected, but Claude must use it in each Exa conversation.

  • Click + at the lower left of the chat, or type /.
  • Hover Connectors.
  • Turn on Composio.
  • Ask Claude to connect to Exa again.

2. Why does Claude show an MCP server error before Exa connects?

Claude can show Couldn't reach the MCP server or Authorization with the MCP server failed when you add the connector for Exa.

  • Check that the connector URL is https://connect.composio.dev/mcp.
  • Connectors run from Anthropic's cloud, so your device network is usually not the problem.
  • Add the connector again from Customize > Connectors, then ask Claude to connect Exa.
  • If it fails again, send the error and the ofid_ reference id to support@composio.dev.

3. Why does the Exa authorization link not work?

The Composio connector is one server. Your Exa account connects separately when Claude asks for it.

  • If the browser does not open, or the link expires, ask Claude to retry the Exa connection.
  • Composio creates a fresh Exa authorization link.
  • Open that link in your browser and finish the Exa sign-in.

4. Why do Exa actions fail after they worked before?

The Exa connection can expire or lose permission.

  • Ask Claude to inspect the Exa connection.
  • If the connection is unhealthy, disconnect it when Claude prompts you.
  • Reconnect the Exa account and retry the action.
  • If Claude shows a permission prompt, approve it before Claude changes data in Exa.
  • If the action still fails with a permission error, check that the connected account has that permission in Exa itself.

5. How do I switch to a different Exa account?

Claude can manage the Exa connection for you.

  • Ask Claude to disconnect or delete the current Exa account.
  • Ask Claude to connect Exa again.
  • Open the new Composio authorization link for Exa.
  • Sign in with the other Exa account in the browser.
  • After the account connects, ask Claude to retry the Exa task.

6. Why is my Exa connection missing in Claude Desktop or on a Team plan?

The connector belongs to your Claude account, so your Exa connection works in Claude Web, Desktop, and Cowork.

  • In Claude Desktop, open Customize > Connectors.
  • Next to Composio, click ⋮ and click Clear cache.
  • If Exa tools still do not appear, click ⋮, disconnect, remove the connector, and add it again.
  • On Team or Enterprise, an Owner or Primary Owner must enable the connector before you can connect Exa.
TOOLS

Supported Tools

Every Exa action and event your agent gets out of the box.

Generate an answer

Generates a direct, citation-backed answer to a clear natural language question or topic using Exa's search, adept at both specific answers and detailed summaries for open-ended queries.

Create Import

Tool to create a new import to upload data into a Webset.

Create a Monitor

Tool to create a new Monitor.

Create Research Task

Creates an asynchronous research task that explores the web, gathers sources, synthesizes findings, and returns results with citations.

Create Webset

Tool to create a new Webset with search, import, and enrichment setup.

Delete import

Tool to delete an existing import.

Delete webset

Tool to delete a Webset.

Find similar

Finds web pages semantically similar to a given URL using embeddings-based search, optionally retrieving full text, highlights, or summaries for results.

Get API Key

Tool to retrieve details of a specific API key by its ID.

Get contents from URLs or document IDs

Retrieves configurable text and highlights from a list of Exa document IDs or publicly accessible URLs.

Get Event

Tool to get details of a specific event by its ID.

Get Research Task

Tool to retrieve the status and results of a previously created research task.

List events

Tool to list all events that have occurred in the system.

List imports

Tool to list all imports for the Webset.

List research tasks

Tool to retrieve a paginated list of your research tasks.

List webhooks

Tool to list all webhooks for Websets.

Search

Performs a web search using the Exa engine, useful for queries requiring advanced filtering, specific content categories, or AI-optimized prompting.

Update import

Tool to update an import configuration by ID.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Exa MCP Agent with another framework

OpenAI Agents SDK logo

OpenAI Agents SDK

Use Exa MCP with OpenAI Agents SDK

Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

Use Exa MCP with Claude Agent SDK

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Use Exa MCP with Claude Code

Grok Bot logo

Grok Bot

Use Exa MCP with Grok Bot

Codex logo

Codex

Use Exa MCP with Codex

OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

Use Exa MCP with OpenClaw

Hermes logo

Hermes

Use Exa MCP with Hermes

Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

Use Exa MCP with Atomic Agent

Google ADK logo

Google ADK

Use Exa MCP with Google ADK

LangChain logo

LangChain

Use Exa MCP with LangChain

Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

Use Exa MCP with Vercel AI SDK

Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

Use Exa MCP with Mastra AI

LlamaIndex logo

LlamaIndex

Use Exa MCP with LlamaIndex

CrewAI logo

CrewAI

Use Exa MCP with CrewAI

Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

Use Exa MCP with Pydantic AI

AutoGen logo

AutoGen

Use Exa MCP with AutoGen

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

With a standalone Exa MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Exa tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Exa and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Yes, you can. Claude Cowork fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Exa tools.

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Exa scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Exa data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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