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How to integrate Exa MCP with LlamaIndex

Connect LlamaIndex 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.

64 Tools

Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Exa to LlamaIndex using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Exa agent that can search the web, generate answers, fetch page contents, build and enrich Websets, and set up search monitors through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your LlamaIndex agent real control over a Exa account through Composio's Exa MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

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TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Set your OpenAI and Composio API keys
  • Install LlamaIndex and Composio packages
  • Create a Composio Tool Router session for Exa
  • Connect LlamaIndex to the Exa MCP server
  • Build a Exa-powered agent using LlamaIndex
  • Interact with Exa through natural language

What is LlamaIndex?

LlamaIndex is a data framework for building LLM applications. It provides tools for connecting LLMs to external data sources and services through agents and tools.

Key features include:

  • ReAct Agent: Reasoning and acting pattern for tool-using agents
  • MCP Tools: Native support for Model Context Protocol
  • Context Management: Maintain conversation context across interactions
  • Async Support: Built for async/await patterns

What is the Exa MCP server, 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 Exa’s web search, content extraction, and research tools, so your agent can search the web, generate cited answers, retrieve website content, conduct in-depth research, and organize findings on your behalf.

  • Web search: Have your agent search the web with Exa to find relevant sources for a topic, question, company, or market.
  • Citation-backed answers: Ask the agent to answer specific questions or summarize broad topics using supporting web sources and citations.
  • Website content extraction: Direct your agent to retrieve text, highlights, summaries, and linked subpages from websites or saved documents.
  • Multi-step research: Let the agent start research tasks, check their progress, and return synthesized findings with citations when the work is complete.
  • Research collection management: Instruct your agent to create or delete web collections, import data into them, review imports, add enrichment, and set up monitors.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Composio SDK?

Composio's Composio SDK helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Composio SDK

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Composio SDK works

The Composio SDK follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Step by step10 STEPS
1

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:
  • Python 3.8/Node 16 or higher installed
  • A Composio account with the API key
  • An OpenAI API key
  • A Exa account and project
  • Basic familiarity with async Python/Typescript
2

Getting API Keys for OpenAI, Composio, and Exa

OpenAI API key (OPENAI_API_KEY)
  • Go to the OpenAI dashboard
  • Create an API key if you don't have one
  • Assign it to OPENAI_API_KEY in .env
Composio API key and user ID
  • Log into the Composio dashboard
  • Copy your API key from Settings
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_API_KEY
  • Pick a stable user identifier (email or ID)
    • Use this as COMPOSIO_USER_ID
3

Installing dependencies

npm install @composio/llamaindex @llamaindex/openai @llamaindex/tools @llamaindex/workflow dotenv

Create a new Typescript project and install the necessary dependencies:

  • @composio/llamaindex: Composio's LlamaIndex integration
  • @llamaindex/openai: OpenAI LLM integration
  • @llamaindex/tools: MCP client for LlamaIndex
  • @llamaindex/workflow: Workflow framework for LlamaIndex
  • dotenv: Environment variable management
4

Set environment variables

bash
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your-composio-api-key
COMPOSIO_USER_ID=your-user-id

Create a .env file in your project root:

These credentials will be used to:

  • Authenticate with OpenAI's GPT-5 model
  • Connect to Composio's Tool Router
  • Identify your Composio user session for Exa access
5

Import modules

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

Create a new file called exa_llamaindex_agent.ts and import the required modules:

Key imports:

  • dotenv.config loads .env at runtime
  • readline gives us a simple CLI chat loop
  • Composio is the main Composio SDK client
  • mcp connects to an MCP endpoint
  • createAgent builds a LlamaIndex agent
  • openai configures the LLM backend
6

Load environment variables and initialize Composio

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!OPENAI_API_KEY) throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set");
if (!COMPOSIO_USER_ID) throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set");

What's happening:

This ensures missing credentials cause early, clear errors before the agent attempts to initialise.

7

Create a Tool Router session and build the agent function

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

  const composio = new Composio({
    apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY,
    provider: new LlamaindexProvider(),
  });

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["exa"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
        description : "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Exa actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

What's happening here:

  • We create a Composio client using your API key and configure it with the LlamaIndex provider
  • We then create a tool router MCP session for your user, specifying the toolkits we want to use (in this case, exa)
  • The session returns an MCP HTTP endpoint URL that acts as a gateway to all your configured tools
  • LlamaIndex will connect to this endpoint to dynamically discover and use the available Exa tools.
  • The MCP tools are mapped to LlamaIndex-compatible tools and plug them into the Agent.
8

Create an interactive chat loop

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

What's happening:

  • We're creating a direct terminal interface to chat with Exa
  • The LLM's responses are streamed to the CLI for faster interaction.
  • The agent uses context to maintain conversation history
  • The agent processes the request, selects appropriate Exa tools, and returns a result
  • We extract the answer from the result data structure and display it to the user
  • You can type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop the chat loop gracefully
  • Agent responses and any errors are streamed in a clear, readable format
9

Define the main entry point

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

What's happening here:

  • We're orchestrating the entire application flow
  • The agent gets built with proper error handling
  • Then we kick off the interactive chat loop so you can start talking to Exa
10

Run the agent

npx ts-node llamaindex-agent.ts

When prompted, authenticate and authorise your agent with Exa, then start asking questions.

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Exa and LlamaIndex:

import "dotenv/config";
import readline from "node:readline/promises";
import { stdin as input, stdout as output } from "node:process";

import { Composio } from "@composio/core";
import { LlamaindexProvider } from "@composio/llamaindex";

import { mcp } from "@llamaindex/tools";
import { agent as createAgent } from "@llamaindex/workflow";
import { openai } from "@llamaindex/openai";

dotenv.config();

const OPENAI_API_KEY = process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_API_KEY = process.env.COMPOSIO_API_KEY;
const COMPOSIO_USER_ID = process.env.COMPOSIO_USER_ID;

if (!OPENAI_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_API_KEY) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set in the environment");
  }
if (!COMPOSIO_USER_ID) {
    throw new Error("COMPOSIO_USER_ID is not set in the environment");
  }

async function buildAgent() {

  console.log(`Initializing Composio client...${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);
  console.log(`COMPOSIO_USER_ID: ${COMPOSIO_USER_ID!}...`);

  const composio = new Composio({
    apiKey: COMPOSIO_API_KEY,
    provider: new LlamaindexProvider(),
  });

  const session = await composio.create(
    COMPOSIO_USER_ID!,
    {
      toolkits: ["exa"],
    },
  );

  const mcpUrl = session.mcp.url;
  console.log(`Composio Tool Router MCP URL: ${mcpUrl}`);

  const server = mcp({
    url: mcpUrl,
    clientName: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    requestInit: {
      headers: {
        "x-api-key": COMPOSIO_API_KEY!,
      },
    },
    // verbose: true,
  });

  const tools = await server.tools();

  const llm = openai({ apiKey: OPENAI_API_KEY, model: "gpt-5" });

  const agent = createAgent({
    name: "composio_tool_router_with_llamaindex",
    description:
      "An agent that uses Composio Tool Router MCP tools to perform actions.",
    systemPrompt:
      "You are a helpful assistant connected to Composio Tool Router."+
"Use the available tools to answer user queries and perform Exa actions." ,
    llm,
    tools,
  });

  return agent;
}

async function chatLoop(agent: ReturnType<typeof createAgent>) {
  const rl = readline.createInterface({ input, output });

  console.log("Type 'quit' or 'exit' to stop.");

  while (true) {
    let userInput: string;

    try {
      userInput = (await rl.question("\nYou: ")).trim();
    } catch {
      console.log("\nAgent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    if (!userInput) {
      continue;
    }

    const lower = userInput.toLowerCase();
    if (lower === "quit" || lower === "exit") {
      console.log("Agent: Bye!");
      break;
    }

    try {
      process.stdout.write("Agent: ");

      const stream = agent.runStream(userInput);
      let finalResult: any = null;

      for await (const event of stream) {
        // The event.data contains the streamed content
        const data: any = event.data;

        // Check for streaming delta content
        if (data?.delta) {
          process.stdout.write(data.delta);
        }

        // Store final result for fallback
        if (data?.result || data?.message) {
          finalResult = data;
        }
      }

      // If no streaming happened, show the final result
      if (finalResult) {
        const answer =
          finalResult.result ??
          finalResult.message?.content ??
          finalResult.message ??
          "";
        if (answer && typeof answer === "string" && !answer.includes("[object")) {
          process.stdout.write(answer);
        }
      }

      console.log(); // New line after streaming completes
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error("\nAgent error:", err?.message ?? err);
    }
  }

  rl.close();
}

async function main() {
  try {
    const agent = await buildAgent();
    await chatLoop(agent);
  } catch (err: any) {
    console.error("Failed to start agent:", err?.message ?? err);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

main();

Conclusion

You've successfully connected Exa to LlamaIndex through Composio's Tool Router MCP layer. Key takeaways:
  • Tool Router dynamically exposes Exa tools through an MCP endpoint
  • LlamaIndex's ReActAgent handles reasoning and orchestration; Composio handles integrations
  • The agent becomes more capable without increasing prompt size
  • Async Python provides clean, efficient execution of agent workflows
You can easily extend this to other toolkits like Gmail, Notion, Stripe, GitHub, and more by adding them to the toolkits parameter.
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.

Batch Search Monitors

Delete, pause, or unpause one batch of matching Search API monitors, not Websets monitors.

Cancel Agent Run

Cancel a queued or running Agent run immediately without returning results.

Cancel Webset

Cancel all operations on a Webset, stopping searches and enrichments.

Cancel Webset Enrichment

Cancel a running Webset enrichment and return its updated state.

Cancel Webset Search

Cancel a running search in a Webset and return its updated state.

Create Agent Run

Start an asynchronous Exa Agent run for multi-step web research or enrichment.

Create API Key

Create an API key for the authenticated Exa team.

Create Import

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

Create a Monitor

Tool to create a new Monitor.

Create Search Monitor

Create a Search API monitor that delivers new, deduplicated search results to a webhook.

Create Webhook

Create a webhook delivering selected events to your URL.

Create Webset

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

Create Webset Enrichment

Create an enrichment task for items in an existing Webset.

Create Webset Search

Create a search for an existing Webset and return its initial state.

Delete Agent Run

Delete a stored Exa Agent run by ID and return its deletion receipt.

Delete API Key

Delete an API key belonging to the authenticated team using a Team Management service key.

Delete import

Tool to delete an existing import.

Delete Search Monitor

Permanently delete a Search API monitor and return the deleted monitor.

Delete Webhook

Delete a webhook, making its status inactive and stopping future deliveries to its URL.

Delete webset

Tool to delete a Webset.

Delete Webset Enrichment

Delete a Webset enrichment and return the deleted enrichment.

Delete Webset Item

Delete an item from a Webset and return the deleted item.

Delete Websets Monitor

Delete a Websets monitor and return the deleted monitor.

Get Agent Run

Retrieve an Agent run to inspect its status, output, citations, usage, or cost.

Get API Key

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

Get API Key Usage

Get an Exa API key's total cost and cost breakdown for a time period.

Get contents from URLs or document IDs

Retrieve text / highlights / summary / subpages from URLs.

Get Event

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

Get Import

Retrieve an import by ID to inspect its status, entity count, and failure details.

Get Search Monitor

Retrieve a Search API monitor's configuration, status, and next scheduled run by ID.

Get Search Monitor Run

Retrieve a Search API monitor run's status and full output when completed.

Get Webhook

Retrieve a webhook's status, events, destination URL, and metadata by ID.

Get Webset

Retrieve a Webset by ID or external ID, including its status and operations.

Get Webset Enrichment

Retrieve an enrichment configured on a Webset, including its status, description, format, and options.

Get Webset Item

Retrieve a Webset item by ID, including its properties, evaluations, and enrichments.

Get Webset Search

Retrieve a Webset search by ID to inspect its status, progress, and recall metrics.

Get Websets Monitor

Retrieve a Websets monitor's status, schedule, search behavior, and last run.

Get Websets Monitor Run

Retrieve a Websets monitor run's status, type, timestamps, and failure reason.

Get Websets Team Info

Get the authenticated Websets team's identity, current concurrency usage, and limits.

List Agent Run Events

List one page of stored Exa Agent run events as JSON.

List Agent Runs

List one page of your team's Exa Agent runs, ordered newest to oldest.

List API Keys

List the authenticated Exa team's API keys, or retrieve one by API key ID.

List events

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

List imports

Tool to list all imports for the Webset.

List Search Monitor Runs

List one page of a Search API monitor's runs, newest first, including status and output.

List Search Monitors

List one page of the authenticated team's Search API monitors, not Websets monitors.

List Webhook Attempts

List one page of a webhook's delivery attempts in descending order.

List webhooks

Tool to list all webhooks for Websets.

List Webset Items

List one page of a Webset's items, optionally filtered by source ID.

List Websets

List one page of Websets, optionally filtered by ID, external ID, or title.

List Websets Monitor Runs

List one page of runs for a Websets monitor, including status and timestamps.

List Websets Monitors

List one page of Websets monitors, optionally filtered by Webset ID.

Preview Webset

Preview how Exa interprets a search before creating a Webset.

Search

Web search via the Exa engine.

Stop Agent Run

Complete a running ultra-effort Agent run early and return results gathered so far.

Trigger Search Monitor

Trigger an immediate Search API monitor run regardless of its schedule.

Update API Key

Update an API key's name, rate limit, or billing-period spending budget.

Update import

Tool to update an import configuration by ID.

Update Search Monitor

Update a Search API monitor's settings, pause or resume it, or remove its schedule with trigger=null.

Update Webhook

Update a webhook's destination URL, subscribed events, or metadata.

Update Webset

Update a Webset's title or metadata, leaving omitted fields unchanged.

Update Webset Enrichment

Update an enrichment's task, format, options, or metadata on a Webset.

Update Websets Monitor

Update a Websets monitor's status, schedule, search behavior, or metadata.

FRAMEWORKS

How to build Exa MCP Agent with another framework

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OpenAI Agents SDK logo

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Claude Agent SDK logo

Claude Agent SDK

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Grok Bot logo

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Muse logo

Muse

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Codex logo

Codex

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OpenClaw logo

OpenClaw

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Hermes logo

Hermes

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Atomic Agent logo

Atomic Agent

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Google ADK logo

Google ADK

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LangChain logo

LangChain

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Vercel AI SDK logo

Vercel AI SDK

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Mastra AI logo

Mastra AI

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CrewAI logo

CrewAI

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Pydantic AI logo

Pydantic AI

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AutoGen logo

AutoGen

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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. LlamaIndex 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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