# Search Web and Code Context with Exa

Current technical answers often require live web sources and focused code references. This skill runs Exa searches from the CLI and returns web or programming context for review.

## Install

```bash
npx skillstore add dcjanus/exa-cli
```

## Metadata

- Status: approved
- Slug: dcjanus-exa-cli
- Skillstore revision: r1
- Version status: missing
- Tree hash: a7acd63c5860d934f83f91e492320e40ca313981573026822d627e37c4e91c9e
- Author: DCjanus
- GitHub username: DCjanus
- License: MIT
- Repository: https://github.com/DCjanus/prompts/tree/master/skills/exa-cli
- Ref: 7e9e368dc1a370f2040369ebcd0db06d90cb48e5
- Supported tools: Claude, Codex, Claude Code
- Audit status: complete
- Agent install advisory: confirmation\_required
- Manual install advisory: allowed
- Artifact signature: available
- Audit attestation: unavailable
- Human verification: not\_verified
- Risk factors: network, env\_access, external\_commands
- Quality score: 38
- Quality tier: warning
- Public page: https://skillstore.pages.dev/skills/dcjanus-exa-cli
- Manifest: https://skillstore.pages.dev/api/skills/dcjanus-exa-cli/manifest

## Capabilities

- Runs Exa web searches through the web-search-exa command.
- Retrieves programming-focused context through get-code-context-exa.
- Uses an Exa MCP endpoint with optional bearer token authentication.
- Supports result count, crawl mode, context length, timeout, and cache controls.
- Can print formatted results or full structured output for inspection.
- Caches MCP initialization and tool-list responses for faster repeated calls.

## Use Cases

- Verify Current API Guidance: Search recent official sources before changing code that depends on external APIs.
- Collect Technical Research Sources: Find relevant web pages and context snippets for a technical decision or comparison.
- Find Programming Context: Retrieve focused context about libraries, errors, or framework behavior before drafting documentation.

## Prompt Templates

### Basic Web Search

```
Use exa-cli to search for current official guidance about {topic}. Summarize the strongest sources with links.
```

### Library Usage Context

```
Use get-code-context-exa for {library} {task}. Return the relevant guidance, source names, and any version details.
```

### Source Comparison

```
Use web-search-exa to compare recent sources about {decision}. Identify agreements, conflicts, and the most authoritative links.
```

### Tuned Research Query

```
Use exa-cli with an appropriate result count and context limit for {research question}. Prefer authoritative sources and note uncertainty.
```

## Limitations

- Requires network access to the configured Exa MCP endpoint.
- Requires an Exa API key or MCP token for authenticated usage.
- Search quality and availability depend on the Exa service.
- A custom endpoint can receive queries and authorization headers.

## Best Practices

- Prefer official documentation and primary sources when reviewing search results.
- Use environment variables for tokens instead of command-line token arguments.
- Set result and context limits to keep outputs focused and reviewable.

## Anti Patterns

- Do not send private code, secrets, or customer data as search queries.
- Do not use an untrusted custom endpoint with environment-based tokens enabled.
- Do not treat search output as authoritative without checking source quality.

## Security Audit

- Audited at: 2026-07-05T09:33:28.831\+00:00
- Summary: The skill is a Python CLI that sends search and code-context requests to the Exa MCP endpoint. Most Markdown backtick and entropy alerts are false positives, but network access, token handling, and direct script execution are real. No prompt injection or intentionally malicious behavior was found.

## Stats

- Views: 209
- Downloads: 9
- Favorites: 1
- Popularity score: 0