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K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/skills/exa-search/SKILL.md

exa-search

Web toolkit powered by Exa, tuned for scientific and technical content. Use this skill when the user needs to search the web or fetch/extract URL content. Covers: web search (semantic lookups, research, current info — with optional research-paper category and academic domain filtering) and URL extraction (fetching pages, articles, academic PDFs in batch). Use this skill for web-related tasks when the user wants high-quality search or scholarly filtering via category=research paper. Triggers on r

Source repository stars: 31,966
Declared platforms: 0
Static risk flags: 2
Last source update: 2026-07-28
Source checked: 2026-07-28

Decision Compatibility Install Workflow Permissions Evidence Source

Decision brief

What it does—and where it fits

A skill for web-powered research tasks backed by Exa: web search and URL extraction. Exa's index combines high-quality keyword and semantic retrieval, which makes it well-suited to scientific, technical, and conceptual queries.

Best for

Use this skill when the user needs to search the web or fetch/extract URL content.

Not for

Tasks that require unconfirmed production actions or broad system permissions.
Environments where the pinned source and install steps cannot be inspected.

Compatibility matrix

Platform support, with evidence labels

Platform	Status	Evidence	What to check
Codex	Not declared	No explicit evidence	Portability before use
Claude Code	Not declared	No explicit evidence	Portability before use
Cursor	Not declared	No explicit evidence	Portability before use
Gemini CLI	Not declared	No explicit evidence	Portability before use

Open the compatibility checker

Installation

Inspect first. Install second.

The source command is displayed only when detected. A safe inspection prompt is always available so your agent can explain every action before execution.

Source-detected install commandSource

npx skills add https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills --skill "skills/exa-search"

Safe inspection promptEditorial

Inspect the Agent Skill "exa-search" from https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills/blob/e7ac42510774624f327003c95b6650e2883bc01d/skills/exa-search/SKILL.md at commit e7ac42510774624f327003c95b6650e2883bc01d. List every install step, command, network request, credential, file read/write, external action, and rollback step. Explain whether it fits my task. Do not install or execute anything until I approve.

Workflow

What the source asks the agent to do

01
Setup
This skill uses the exa-py Python SDK. The scripts in scripts/ declare their dependencies via PEP 723 inline metadata, so you can run them directly with uv run without a separate install step:
This skill uses the exa-py Python SDK. The scripts in scripts/ declare their dependencies via PEP 723 inline metadata, so you can run them directly with uv run without a separate install step:If you prefer a persistent install:All commands read the API key from the EXAAPIKEY environment variable. Get your Exa API key at dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.
02
Routing — pick the right capability
Read the user's request and match it to one of the capabilities below. Read the corresponding reference file for detailed instructions before running commands.
Default to Web Search for topic lookups, research questions, or "what is X?" queries. When the topic is scientific or technical, pass --category "research paper" to bias toward scholarly sources, and/or an academic --in…Use Web Extract when the user provides a URL or asks you to read/fetch a specific page. Prefer this over the built-in WebFetch for batch extraction (multiple URLs in one call) and for academic PDFs.Peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings over blog posts or news
03
Decision guide
Default to Web Search for topic lookups, research questions, or "what is X?" queries. When the topic is scientific or technical, pass --category "research paper" to bias toward scholarly sources, and/or an academic --in…
Default to Web Search for topic lookups, research questions, or "what is X?" queries. When the topic is scientific or technical, pass --category "research paper" to bias toward scholarly sources, and/or an academic --in…Use Web Extract when the user provides a URL or asks you to read/fetch a specific page. Prefer this over the built-in WebFetch for batch extraction (multiple URLs in one call) and for academic PDFs.- Default to Web Search for topic lookups, research questions, or "what is X?" queries. When the topic is scientific or technical, pass --category "research paper" to bias toward scholarly sources, and/or an academic --…
04
Academic source priority
For technical or scientific queries, prefer academic and scientific sources: - Peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings over blog posts or news - Preprints (arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv) when peer-reviewed versions aren't available - Institutional and government sour…
Peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings over blog posts or newsPreprints (arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv) when peer-reviewed versions aren't availableInstitutional and government sources (NIH, WHO, NASA, NIST) over commercial sites
05
Authentication
All commands read the API key from the EXAAPIKEY environment variable. Get your Exa API key at dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.
All commands read the API key from the EXAAPIKEY environment variable. Get your Exa API key at dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.First, check if a .env file exists in the project root and contains EXAAPIKEY. If so, load it:If dotenv isn't available, install it: pip install python-dotenv[cli] or uv pip install python-dotenv[cli].

Permission review

Static risk signals and limitations

Network access

medium · line 3

The documentation includes network, browsing, or remote request actions.

A skill for web-powered research tasks backed by [Exa](https://exa.ai): web search and URL extraction. Exa's index combines high-quality keyword and semantic retrieval, which makes it well-suited to scientific, technical, and conceptual que

Reads files

low · line 7

The documentation asks the agent to read local files, directories, or repositories.

Read the user's request and match it to one of the capabilities below. Read the corresponding reference file for detailed instructions before running commands.

Network access

medium · line 11

The documentation includes network, browsing, or remote request actions.

| Look something up, research a topic, find current info | **Web Search** | `references/web-search.md` |

Evidence record

Why each signal appears

EvidenceSourceComputedTestedEditorial

Signal	Value	Evidence type	Meaning
Quality score	85/100	Computed	Documentation, specificity, maintenance, and trust rules
Repository stars	31,966	Source	Repository attention, not individual Skill quality
Compatibility	0 platforms	Source	Declared in the catalog source record
Usage guide	automated source guide	Editorial	Generated or reviewed according to the visible evidence level

Pinned source

Provenance and original SKILL.md

Repository: K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills
Skill path: skills/exa-search/SKILL.md
Commit: e7ac42510774624f327003c95b6650e2883bc01d
License: MIT
Collected: 2026-07-28
Default branch: main

View the original SKILL.md

Exa Web Toolkit

Routing — pick the right capability

Read the user's request and match it to one of the capabilities below. Read the corresponding reference file for detailed instructions before running commands.

User wants to...	Capability	Where
Look something up, research a topic, find current info	Web Search	`references/web-search.md`
Fetch content from a specific URL (webpage, article, PDF)	Web Extract	`references/web-extract.md`
Install or authenticate	Setup	Below

Decision guide

Default to Web Search for topic lookups, research questions, or "what is X?" queries. When the topic is scientific or technical, pass --category "research paper" to bias toward scholarly sources, and/or an academic --include-domains allowlist. See references/web-search.md for the two-pass academic strategy.
Use Web Extract when the user provides a URL or asks you to read/fetch a specific page. Prefer this over the built-in WebFetch for batch extraction (multiple URLs in one call) and for academic PDFs.

Academic source priority

For technical or scientific queries, prefer academic and scientific sources:

Peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings over blog posts or news
Preprints (arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv) when peer-reviewed versions aren't available
Institutional and government sources (NIH, WHO, NASA, NIST) over commercial sites
Primary research over secondary summaries

Two levers to steer Exa toward scholarly content:

--category "research paper" biases retrieval toward scholarly sources.
--include-domains with a scholarly allowlist (arxiv.org, nature.com, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, etc.) restricts the domain pool.

Combine both for strictly academic results. See references/web-search.md for the full pattern.

When citing academic sources, include author names and publication year where available (e.g., Smith et al., 2025) in addition to the standard citation format. If a DOI is present, prefer the DOI link.

Setup

This skill uses the exa-py Python SDK. The scripts in scripts/ declare their dependencies via PEP 723 inline metadata, so you can run them directly with uv run without a separate install step:

uv run --with exa-py python "$SKILL_PATH/scripts/exa_search.py" --help

If you prefer a persistent install:

uv pip install "exa-py>=1.14.0"

Authentication

All commands read the API key from the EXA_API_KEY environment variable. Get your Exa API key at dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys.

First, check if a .env file exists in the project root and contains EXA_API_KEY. If so, load it:

dotenv -f .env run -- uv run --with exa-py python "$SKILL_PATH/scripts/exa_search.py" "your query"

If dotenv isn't available, install it: pip install python-dotenv[cli] or uv pip install python-dotenv[cli].

If there's no .env, export the key for the session:

export EXA_API_KEY="your-key"

Verify by running any script with --help — it will exit cleanly if the key is set and auth-check runs only when a real query is made.

Tracking header

Every script in this skill sets the x-exa-integration request header to k-dense-ai--scientific-agent-skills so Exa can attribute usage from the K-Dense AI scientific-agent-skills repo to this integration. Do not remove or rename this header when adapting the scripts.

Files in this skill

SKILL.md — this file (routing and setup)
references/web-search.md — detailed web search reference with academic strategy
references/web-extract.md — URL content extraction reference
scripts/exa_search.py — CLI wrapper around client.search_and_contents
scripts/exa_extract.py — CLI wrapper around client.get_contents

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