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Exa MCP connector

The Exa connector brings live web search, page contents, cited answers, deep research tasks, and monitors into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP client, so your team can research the web from the tool they already use.

Connect on Elaichi How to connect

  • How it connects. Connects with an API key. The credential goes into a vault nobody reads back.

  • One address. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, the same for every user.

  • Their own access. An agent never gets more than the person it acts for.

How to connect

How to connect Exa to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

Two steps, about a minute.

1

In Elaichi

Connect Exa once

  1. Open Connections, choose Add connection, and pick Exa.

  2. Optionally set Share with to give a team access, then press Connect.

  3. Paste an Exa API key. One person generates a token in Exa and pastes it once. Everyone else works through Share with, and never sees it.

The credential is vaulted. Nobody reads it back, not even the AI.

Add connection

Choose a connector.

exa
Exa
1Password
360learning
7shifts
Acquire
Active Ants
2

In your AI client

Point it at one endpoint

Everyone in the organization uses the same address, and each person only ever reaches what their own account allows.

Exa MCP connector for Claude

  1. 1

    Open Customize, then Connectors.

  2. 2

    Press Add.

  3. 3

    Name it, paste the MCP server URL, then Continue.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  4. 4

    Sign in and approve.

On Team and Enterprise, an Owner adds it once. Everyone else turns it on for themselves.

Exa MCP connector for ChatGPT

  1. 1

    Open Plugins, then press the + button.

  2. 2

    Name it and paste the endpoint into Server URL.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Leave Authentication on OAuth, then tick the risk acknowledgement.

  4. 4

    Press Create, then sign in and approve.

Works on the web today. The plugin directory lives at chatgpt.com/plugins.

Exa MCP connector for Cursor

  1. 1

    Open ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

  2. 2

    Add the endpoint under mcpServers.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  3. 3

    Reload Cursor, then sign in and approve.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Set up per machine, so repeat it on each computer you work from.

Connect Exa to any MCP client

  1. 1

    Add the endpoint as a remote MCP server.

    https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
  2. 2

    Sign in and approve.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "elaichi": {
      "url": "https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp"
    }
  }
}

The Elaichi Agent already has these tools, with nothing to set up.

Connect Exa on Elaichi See pricing

Use cases

What teams do with Exa through Elaichi

Every one of these runs inside the access the person already has, and lands in the same audit log.

  • Sales

    Research a prospect before the first call

    Ask for a company's recent news, funding, leadership changes, and what its own site says, then walk in with a briefing instead of a browser full of tabs.

  • Marketing

    Watch competitors for new launches and pricing

    Set up an Exa monitor on a competitor's product pages and announcements, and check the latest monitor runs for what changed since last week.

  • Research

    Run a deep research task on a question

    Hand Exa a hard question, let the research task gather sources across the web, and get back a written answer with the pages it drew from.

  • Recruiting

    Build a shortlist of candidates and companies

    Search for people and organizations that match a role, pull the full text of their public profiles and company pages, and keep the list in one place.

  • Product

    Pull the text of documentation and reviews

    Fetch the contents of docs, changelogs, and review pages for tools you are evaluating, then ask for a summary of the differences.

  • Leadership

    Get a cited answer to a market question

    Ask how large a market is or who the main players are, and get an answer with links to the sources behind every claim.

Try asking

  • “Summarize the last 20 Exa agent runs for me.”
  • “Draft an Exa answer on competitor pricing changes this week.”
  • “List Exa contents saved for the launch research brief.”

See all 56 Exa tools below

Compare

Elaichi vs Zapier MCP vs Composio for Exa

All three can connect Exa to an AI assistant, and all three have admin controls. They differ in where access lives and how you pay.

Elaichi compared with Zapier MCP and Composio for Exa, by what to check
What to check Elaichi Zapier MCP Composio
Where the AI connects One address for the whole organization. https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp A server per member, created at sign-in. An MCP endpoint per team, or an SDK.
Control over Exa tools Allow or restrict single Exa tools, per role or user. App and action restrictions on the account. Role permissions, down to the action.
Record of calls One audit entry per Exa call. A History tab of tool calls. A log of every tool call.
Single sign-on SAML or OIDC, plus SCIM, on Gold. SAML on Enterprise. SAML and OIDC on Enterprise.
Price $15 per user per month. 2 tasks per successful call. Billed per tool call.

Sources: Zapier MCP docs, security, usage; Composio docs, gateway, enterprise, pricing. Checked September 2026.

Longer take: Zapier MCP alternative and when you don't need an MCP gateway.

AI tools

Exa tools for your AI agents

56 tools are ready to call through Elaichi's MCP endpoint the moment you connect Exa, governed by the same roles, restrictions, and audit log as everything else in Elaichi.

See it in Elaichi

What connecting Exa gets you

6 screens from the product, each doing one job for your Exa account.

The agent

Ask in plain language, answer from Exa.

The agent reads live Exa runs, contents and answers to reply.

  • agent runs
  • runs
  • contents
  • answers

Ask Elaichi to work across your apps.

Summarize the last 20 Exa agent runs for me.

Draft an Exa answer on competitor pricing changes this week.

List Exa contents saved for the launch research brief.

Also runs in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor

MCP clients

Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor reach Exa here.

One governed MCP endpoint over OAuth, no SDK and no shared API key.

ElaichiMCP clients
Claude ChatGPT Cursor

Copy the endpoint

https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp
Client Connected by Status Last used
Claude
E

Emily Carter

 • Connected 4 minutes ago
Cursor
M

Megan Brooks

 • Connected 2 hours ago
ChatGPT
R

Ryan Hayes

 • Connected Yesterday

Tool catalog

56 Exa tools ready without custom code.

Agent runs, runs, contents, contexts and monitors, with every method listed.

  • Create a Exa nevermined purchase
  • Delete a Exa agent run by ID
  • Get single Exa agent run by ID
  • Create a Exa agent run
ElaichiTools
Tool Action Description
Create a Exa nevermined purchase Create Purchase an Exa API key with $7 of credits via Nevermined x402 card delegation. For a first-time payer, provisions a new key; for a returning payer, adds $7 of credits to the existing key. Returns: status, apiKey, expiresAt.
Delete a Exa agent run by ID Delete Delete an exa agent run by id. Returns an empty 204 response on success. Required: id.
Get single Exa agent run by ID Get Retrieve an exa agent run by id. Poll this endpoint until the run reaches a terminal state. Returns: id, status (one of queued, running, completed, failed, cancelled). Required: id.
Create a Exa agent run Create Create a new exa agent run. Returns: id, status reflecting the initial state of the newly created run.
List all Exa agent runs List List all exa agent runs. Returns: id, status per run.

Toolboxes

Every team gets its own Exa toolbox.

Research, content and engineering each see the Exa tools their work needs.

  • Research
  • Content
  • Engineering
  • Competitive intelligence
ElaichiToolboxes
Name Source template Tools Created

Research toolbox

Exa · answers and contexts

 Exa starter 18 Mar 4, 2026

Content toolbox

Exa · contents and sources

 — 9 Mar 2, 2026

Engineering toolbox

Exa · agent runs and run events

 — 24 Feb 27, 2026

Competitive intelligence toolbox

Exa · monitors and answers

 Exa starter 6 Feb 19, 2026

Sales toolbox

Exa · account research answers

 — 31 Jan 30, 2026

Operations toolbox

Exa · runs and purchases

 — 12 Jan 22, 2026

Shared connections

Teammates use Exa without seeing a key.

Each Exa connection shows who connected it and which teams share it.

  • Research
  • Content EMEA
  • Competitive intel
  • Engineering
ElaichiConnections
Connection Scope Status Access
EX

Exa (Research)

Connected by Emily Carter

 Personal • Active 1 team · 6 members
EX

Exa (Content EMEA)

Connected by Jake Morgan

 Organization • Active 3 teams · 24 members
EX

Exa (Competitive intel)

Connected by Megan Brooks

 Organization • Active 2 teams · 11 members
EX

Exa (Engineering)

Connected by Tyler Reed

 Personal • Needs re-auth 1 team · 3 members
EX

Exa (Sales research)

Connected by Ryan Hayes

 Personal • Active Not shared
EX

Exa (Operations)

Connected by Ashley Parker

 Personal • Active 2 teams · 9 members

Audit log

Every Exa call is written down.

When, who, what happened, type and resource, in an append only log.

  • When
  • Who
  • What happened
  • Type
ElaichiAudit log
When Who What happened Type

2 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:10 PM
E

Emily Carter

emily.carter@northwind.io

 Restriction Created Access

8 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 3:04 PM
J

Jake Morgan

jake.morgan@northwind.io

 Restriction Updated Access

14 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:58 PM
M

Megan Brooks

megan.brooks@northwind.io

 Role Assigned Access

20 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:52 PM
T

Tyler Reed

tyler.reed@northwind.io

 Exa Users Updated MCP

26 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:46 PM
R

Ryan Hayes

ryan.hayes@northwind.io

 Exa Agent runs Created MCP

32 minutes ago

Mar 6, 2026, 2:40 PM
A

Ashley Parker

ashley.parker@northwind.io

 Exa Agent runs List Toolbox

Launching soon

From answering questions to doing the work

A person no longer has to ask. A trigger starts the work, inside the same permissions and the same audit log as everything else. Automations and live dashboards are launching soon, on the Black plan.

Automations

A schedule fires, Exa research ships itself.

Six steps fetch Exa contents, group them, draft a digest, then await approval.

Exa digest

Run 418 · started 2 minutes ago · on behalf of Emily Carter

  1. ✓

    Schedule

    Every weekday at 8:00 AM

    0.2s
  2. ✓

    Fetch agent runs

    Exa

    1.4s
  3. ✓

    Group by owner

    Transform

    0.1s
  4. ✓

    Draft the digest

    Agent step

    Ran with 4 tools, returned a structured summary

    6.2s

  5. Approve the digest

    Needs approval

    Assigned to Michael Brennan

    Approve

  6. Post the digest

    Exa

    Queued

Collections and dashboards

Exa health in numbers, refreshed on schedule.

Four metrics, 14 days of records created and a team breakdown, computed directly.

Exa health

Refreshed 4 minutes ago · every 15 minutes · from the agent runs collection

Live

Agent runs

1,284 ↓ 12%

Runs

96 ↓ 8%

Needs attention

3 ↑ 2

Updated this week

412 ↑ 9%

Agent runs created

Last 14 days

By team

Share of activity

Research 34%

Content EMEA 27%

Competitive intel 21%

Engineering 18%

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do I connect Exa to Claude?

First connect Exa in Elaichi by pasting your Exa API key, which you copy from your Exa dashboard. There is no OAuth application to register and no client ID or secret to generate. Then in Claude open Customize, then Connectors, then Add, and paste the endpoint https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp. Sign in to Elaichi when Claude asks and Exa search, contents, answers, research tasks, and monitors are available in your conversation.

Does Exa work with ChatGPT and Cursor as well as Claude?

Yes. Once Exa is connected in Elaichi, the same endpoint, https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, works in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, any MCP client, and the Elaichi Agent. You connect Exa once and every client you use picks it up.

What can an AI agent actually do with Exa?

With Exa connected, an AI agent can search the web for pages, people, and companies, fetch the full text of a page, and give a cited answer to a direct question. It can also start a deep research task on a hard question, create monitors that watch for new results on a topic, and read back what those monitors found. Because Exa offers many actions, short concrete asks such as "find the pricing page for Acme" work better than long paragraphs.

Does connecting Exa give the AI my whole Exa account?

The AI can only do what the Exa account behind the connected API key can do, and every call is tied to the Elaichi user who made it. Elaichi can narrow that further, for example allowing search and page contents but not creating monitors or research tasks, and it never widens access beyond what the Exa key already permits.

Can my team share one Exa connection?

Yes. One person connects Exa with the API key and shares the connection with a team in Elaichi, and nobody else on the team ever sees or handles the key. Each teammate still signs in to Elaichi as themselves, so the audit log records which person ran each Exa search, research task, or monitor change.

Can I stop an agent from deleting or changing things in Exa?

Yes. Restrictions in Elaichi work per action, so you can allow Exa search and page contents while blocking the actions that create, update, or delete monitors, runs, and research tasks. A blocked action is never shown to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any other client, so no prompt, however worded, can reach it.

What happens to an Exa connection when someone leaves?

When a person is offboarded in Elaichi, their access to Exa through every connected client ends at once. If they were using a shared Exa connection, it keeps working for everyone else on the team, and if they were the one who connected Exa, an admin can reassign it. Disconnecting Exa once in Elaichi removes it from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and every other client at the same time.

Does the Exa MCP connector work with Gemini, Codex, Claude Code or other MCP clients?

Yes. Exa is reached over the same MCP endpoint every client uses, so anything that speaks MCP can call it — Gemini, Codex, Claude Code, Windsurf, Cline, Zed and OpenCode among them — alongside Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and the Elaichi Agent. The tools on offer and the access behind them are identical whichever client asks. Only the setup screen differs.

Is Elaichi an alternative to Zapier MCP for Exa?

Yes. Both let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor use Exa. Zapier MCP fits a team that already automates in Zapier, since each person signs in and acts as themselves in that account. Elaichi fits when IT wants one address for the whole company, per-tool rules by role, and a record of every Exa call.

How is Elaichi different from Composio for Exa?

Composio gives AI agents tools and sign-in handling across 1,000+ apps, for developers building agents or people using an assistant, billed per tool call. Elaichi gives a company's own people governed access to Exa: one address, restrictions per role or user, and $15 per user per month. Both have role permissions and a log of every call.

Put Exa in front of your team

14 days on Gold, no credit card. Connect it once and pick what each team can call.

Connect Exa Talk to us
Works with
Claude ChatGPT Cursor and any other MCP client, or the Elaichi Agent.
When the trial ends
Nothing is deleted. Connections, roles and the audit log stay where they are, so subscribing picks up exactly where you left off.