Exa AI SDK

Exa is a Websearch API. Add Exa websearch tool to your LLMs in just a few lines of code. Giving your AI apps websearch capabilites. Works with AI SDK by Vercel.

Table of Contents

- Installation
- Quick Start
- Setup
- Example
- All Options
- TypeScript Support
- Links
- License

Installation

``bash
npm install @exalabs/ai-sdk
`

Quick Start

`typescript
import { generateText, stepCountIs } from "ai";
import { webSearch } from "@exalabs/ai-sdk";
import { openai } from "@ai-sdk/openai";

const { text } = await generateText({
model: openai('gpt-5-nano'),
prompt: 'Tell me the latest developments in AI',
system: "Only use web search once per turn. Answer based on the information you have.",
tools: {
webSearch: webSearch(),
},
stopWhen: stepCountIs(3),
});

console.log(text);
`

Get your API key from the Exa Dashboard.

Defaults when you use webSearch():
- Type: auto (best search)
- Results: 10
- Text: 3000 characters per result
- Livecrawl: fallback (fresh content when needed)

Setup

1. Get your API key from the Exa Dashboard
2. Add it to your .env file:

`bash
EXA_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
`

That's it! The package reads it automatically.

Example

Here's a full-featured example combining the most useful search settings:

`typescript
const { text } = await generateText({
model: openai('gpt-5-nano'),
prompt: 'Find the top AI companies in Europe founded after 2018',
tools: {
webSearch: webSearch({
type: "auto", // intelligent hybrid search
numResults: 6, // return up to 6 results
category: "company", // focus on companies
contents: {
text: { maxCharacters: 1000 }, // get up to 1000 chars per result
livecrawl: "preferred", // always get fresh content if possible
summary: true, // return an AI-generated summary for each result
},
}),
},
stopWhen: stepCountIs(5),
});

console.log(text);
`

All Options

`typescript
webSearch({
// Search settings
type: "auto", // "auto", "keyword", "neural", "fast", "deep"
category: "news", // "company", "research paper", "news", "pdf",
// "github", "personal site", "linkedin profile", "financial report"
numResults: 10,

// Filter by domain
includeDomains: ["linkedin.com", "github.com"],
excludeDomains: ["wikipedia.com"],

// Filter by date (ISO 8601)
startPublishedDate: "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
endPublishedDate: "2025-12-31T23:59:59.999Z",
startCrawlDate: "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
endCrawlDate: "2025-12-31T23:59:59.999Z",

// Filter by text
includeText: ["AI"], // Must contain
excludeText: ["spam"], // Must not contain

// Location
userLocation: "US", // Two-letter country code

// Content options
contents: {
text: {
maxCharacters: 1000,
includeHtmlTags: false,
},
summary: {
query: "Main points",
},
livecrawl: "fallback", // "never", "fallback", "always", "preferred"
livecrawlTimeout: 10000,
subpages: 5,
subpageTarget: "about",
extras: {
links: 5,
imageLinks: 3,
},
},
})
`

TypeScript Support

Full TypeScript types included:

`typescript
import { webSearch, ExaSearchConfig, ExaSearchResult } from "@exalabs/ai-sdk";

const config: ExaSearchConfig = {
numResults: 10,
type: "auto",
};

const search = webSearch(config);
``

Links

- GitHub Repository - View source code of this npm package
- Try npm Package - View on npm
- Vercel AI SDK Cookbook - Web search agent example featuring Exa
- API Dashboard - Try Exa API on the dashboard
- Get your API Keys - Get your API keys
- Documentation - Exa API documentation
- Exa Website - Learn more about Exa

License

MIT