Cline Exa Search crawling_exa

How to: Cline Exa Search crawling_exa

client:Cline transport:stdio tool:crawling_exa

Add Exa Search to Cline

01
Open ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.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>"
      }
    }
  }
}

02
Save the file and restart Cline.
03
Ask for something crawling_exa does. Cline lists the server's tools on connect and calls crawling_exa itself — you do not invoke it by name.
04
If nothing happens, check the server is running and that Exa Search's identifier in your config matches the one above exactly.

Cline's MCP Servers pane edits this file for you if you would rather not find it. Cline docs

Set these first

Exa Search will not start until these are set, so crawling_exa never becomes available.

EXA_API_KEY

Same tool, other clients

Mutating and Read-only are read off each tool's name, not its schema — a hint, not a guarantee. The registry stores tool names only; connect the server for its live schemas.

Exa Search MCP server