Zed Exa Search crawling_exa
How to: Zed Exa Search crawling_exa
Add Exa Search to Zed
-
01
Open ~/.config/zed/settings.json and merge this in. Keep any servers already there.
{
"context_servers": {
"exa-mcp-server": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"exa-mcp-server"
],
"env": {
"EXA_API_KEY": "<EXA_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}-
02
Save the file and restart Zed.
-
03
Ask for something crawling_exa does. Zed 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.
Merge this into your existing settings object — do not replace the file. Zed 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.