Exa Search Integration: Neural, Keyword & Hybrid Search

Exa AI is a web_search provider offering neural, keyword, and hybrid search modes, along with built-in content extraction for highlights, text, and summaries.

Install plugin

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/exa-plugin
openclaw gateway restart

Get an API key

Create an account

Store the key

Set EXA_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, or configure it using:

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, place 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 alternative endpoint. OpenClaw normalizes bare hosts by prepending https:// and appending /search unless the path already ends there. The resolved endpoint becomes part of the search cache key, so results from different endpoints are never shared.

Tool parameters

query (string, required), Search query.
count (number, default: 5), Number of 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_after (string), Results after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
date_before (string), Results before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
contents (object), Content extraction options (see below).

Content extraction

Pass a contents object to control extracted content in results:

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.

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