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Tools

Exa search

Exa AI is a web_search provider. It offers the auto, neural, fast, deep, deep-reasoning, and instant search modes described in Search modes. It also has built-in content extraction (highlights, text, summaries).

Install plugin

bash
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/exa-plugin

Installation applies to a running Gateway automatically; otherwise it takes effect on the next startup. See Apply changes and inspect.

Get an API key

  • Create an account

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

  • Store the key

    Set EXA_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, or configure via:

    bash
    openclaw configure --section web

    • Config

    json5
    {  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. See Env vars.

    Base URL override

    Set plugins.entries.exa.config.webSearch.baseUrl to route Exa search requests through a compatible proxy or alternate endpoint. OpenClaw normalizes bare hosts by prepending https:// and appends /search unless the path already ends there. The resolved endpoint is part of the search cache key, so results from different endpoints are never shared.

    Tool parameters

    querystringrequired

    Search query.

    countnumberdefault: 5

    Results to return (1-100, subject to Exa search-type limits).

    type'auto' | 'neural' | 'fast' | 'deep' | 'deep-reasoning' | 'instant'

    Search mode.

    freshness'day' | 'week' | 'month' | 'year'

    Time filter. Cannot be combined with date_after/date_before.

    date_afterstring

    Results after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

    date_beforestring

    Results before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

    contentsobject

    Content extraction options (see below).

    Content extraction

    Pass a contents object to control extracted content in results:

    javascript
    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 option Type Description
    text boolean | { maxCharacters } Extract full page text
    highlights boolean | { maxCharacters, query, numSentences, highlightsPerUrl } Extract key sentences
    summary boolean | { query } AI-generated summary

    If contents is omitted, Exa defaults to { highlights: true } so results include key-sentence excerpts. Result descriptions resolve from highlights first, then summary, then full text -- whichever is available first. Results also preserve the raw highlightScores and summary fields from the Exa API response when available.

    Search modes

    Mode Description
    auto Exa picks the best mode (default)
    neural Semantic/meaning-based search
    fast Quick keyword search
    deep Thorough deep search
    deep-reasoning Deep search with reasoning
    instant Fastest results

    Notes

    • count accepts up to 100, subject to Exa search-type limits.
    • Results are cached for 15 minutes by default. Configure the shared tools.web.search.cacheTtlMinutes (minutes) and tools.web.search.timeoutSeconds (default 30s) to change caching and request timeout for all web_search providers, including Exa.
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