Exa Search

Search the web by meaning rather than keywords.

What it does

Search built for meaning rather than keywords — describe the kind of page you want and it finds pages like it. Better than a keyword search when you cannot name the thing exactly.

What you need

API key from Exa. dashboard.exa.ai → API Keys.

Connecting it

Credentials belong to one project, not to your workspace and not to you. A system built for one client never runs on another client's account, and a package handed to a business runs on theirs.

Open the project and stay on the Visual Editor tab.
Open the Tools & Integrations rail on the right.
Find this tool, open it, and paste the credential.

To change it later, open the same panel — you can leave the key blank to keep the stored one and change only the other field.

Using it in a step

An Action step runs one tool with the arguments you type, exactly as written, with no model involved — so it costs nothing per run and behaves the same every time. Add one from the canvas toolbar, choose Exa Search, and fill in:

Field	Required	What goes in it
`query`	yes	Describe the kind of page you want, in a sentence.
`count`	no	How many results.

Values can carry results forward: {{previous}} is the step before, and {{row:column}} is a column from the row this run is about when the trigger fans out.

Press Try it to run the step on its own before committing to a whole sequence.

Using it with an agent

Tick Exa Search on any agent that should be able to call it, and the agent decides when to. Use an agent when the judgement matters and an Action step when the certainty does.

A worked example

A researcher looks for 'companies doing last-mile delivery for pharmacies in West Africa' and gets relevant company pages rather than blog listicles.

When it goes wrong

It is not a Nigerian local search. For 'best plumber in Yaba', use Serper.