Grok Exa Search crawling_exa
How to: Grok Exa Search crawling_exa
Add Exa Search to Grok
-
01
Open .mcp.json (in your project root) and merge this in. Keep any servers already there.
{
"mcpServers": {
"exa-mcp-server": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"exa-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "<EXA_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}-
02
Save the file and restart Grok.
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03
Ask for something crawling_exa does. Grok lists the server's tools on connect and calls crawling_exa itself — you do not invoke it by name.
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04
If nothing happens, check the server is running and that Exa Search's identifier in your config matches the one above exactly.
Grok Build reads Claude Code's .mcp.json and Claude Desktop's config unchanged, so a server you have already set up there needs nothing new. The Grok web app and X integration do not take custom servers. Grok docs
Set these first
Exa Search will not start until these are set, so crawling_exa never becomes available.
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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.