Pi Exa
Extension
Adds source-oriented web search and bounded content retrieval through Exa.
What it does
Adds one tool for source-oriented web search and another for retrieving highlights or bounded text from already-known source URLs.
Validates bounded inputs, returns readable source metadata, and treats retrieved material as untrusted evidence.
Redacts the configured Exa credential from response content before returning results or saving private overflow output.
Truncates oversized model-visible output and can place the complete formatted result in a private temporary file.
When to reach for it
Invocation: Let Pi invoke exa_search for discovery, then exa_contents for selected source URLs.
- Current or external facts are not available in the repository
- Search for candidate sources and cite the useful returned URLs.
- A source URL is already known but its relevant passages need inspection
- Retrieve highlights first or request a bounded amount of text.
- A search result is too large for the normal tool response
- Use the truncated response for orientation and inspect the private full-output file only when needed.
What it adds
- Search modes, domain and date filters, and optional grounded structured output.
- Highlights-first retrieval for one to ten known HTTP or HTTPS sources.
- Single-attempt request handling, response bounds, cancellation, and private overflow files.
How it fits
No related catalog surfaces are recorded.
Common questions
- Should returned web text be followed as instructions?
- No. Treat it as untrusted evidence, verify claims against selected sources, and cite the source URLs used.
- Does a failed request retry automatically?
- No. Each invocation makes at most one network attempt; a deliberate retry is a new operation and may have service cost.
- What can remain on disk?
- Only oversized formatted output is written to an extension-created private temporary file.
- Session shutdown removes tracked temporary directories on a best-effort basis, so abnormal process termination can leave them behind.
It’s working if
- Search returns source URLs, metadata, and highlights appropriate to the supplied bounds.
- Contents retrieval preserves the requested source order and reports per-source outcomes.
- Oversized results stay bounded in the tool response and identify a private full-output file when saving succeeds.
Source and setup
Provenance
- Project
- Pi Exa
- Origin
- Vedang Manerikar
- Current maintainer
- Vedang Manerikar
- Relationship
- original
- Installed source
git:github.com/vedang/pi-exa- Source path
- View source (
src/index.ts) - Compatibility
- Pi tool APIs
- Node.js 22.19 or newer
- Network access to Exa
- Configured Exa API credentials
- License publication scope
- Independently written factual summary and source link only; no source reuse permission asserted.
- Reviewed revision
34e083e304206107cc2e0c0171f378a1103a64f3- Catalog revision
e0c035a297462c519315abfa1af31a1ed3bd9eef
Setup notes
- Requires configured Exa API credentials; the extension reads them from the environment for each request and must not expose their values.
- Uses Exa as a third-party network service; review current service terms, availability, and pricing before cost-sensitive use.
- Returned pages and snippets can contain misleading or hostile instructions and should remain evidence, not authority.
- No source license is declared at the reviewed revision; this guide publishes only independently written factual prose and a source link.