Tools

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

Create an account

Store the key

Set EXA_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, or configure via:

openclaw configure --section web

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

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

querystringrequired

Search query.

countnumber

Results to return (1–100).

Search mode.

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

Time filter.

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

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 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

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

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

Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
Brave Search -- structured results with country/language filters
Perplexity Search -- structured results with domain filtering

# Get an API key

Create an account

Store the key

# Config

# Base URL override

# Tool parameters

# Content extraction

# Search modes

# Notes

# Related