Claude Desktop Exa Search crawling_exa

Add Exa Search to Claude Desktop

1. 01

   Open ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json and merge this in. Keep any servers already there.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "<EXA_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

2. 02

   Save the file and restart Claude Desktop.

3. 03

   Ask for something crawling_exa does. Claude Desktop lists the server's tools on connect and calls crawling_exa itself — you do not invoke it by name.

4. 04

   If nothing happens, check the server is running and that Exa Search's identifier in your config matches the one above exactly.

Settings → Developer → Edit Config opens this file. Restart the app after saving. Claude Desktop docs

Same tool, other clients

• Claude Code
• Cursor
• VS Code
• Zed
• Windsurf