> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.shanone.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Exa

> Neural web search, similarity search, content retrieval, and long-running research agents

# Exa

Shanone's Exa integration gives your agent 12 tools for neural/semantic search — going beyond keyword search with similarity search, direct answer generation, deep multi-step research, and asynchronous research agents.

## Getting Started

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get an Exa API key">
    Create an API key from the [Exa dashboard](https://dashboard.exa.ai/api-keys).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the key in Shanone">
    Open **Integrations** in the Shanone dashboard, select Exa, and paste the API key.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Retry your request">
    Once saved, `shanone_execute_tool` calls for `exa_*` tools will succeed.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Available Tools

Shanone provides **12 tools** for Exa, organized into these categories:

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Search & content">
    `exa_search`, `exa_find_similar`, `exa_get_contents`, `exa_answer`, `exa_deep_search`
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Research agents">
    `exa_agent_create`, `exa_agent_get`, `exa_agent_list`, `exa_agent_cancel`, `exa_agent_delete`, `exa_agent_events`
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Common Use Cases

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Grounded question answering" icon="message-circle-question">
    Use `exa_answer` to get a direct answer with cited sources instead of a raw results list
  </Card>

  <Card title="Competitive research" icon="search">
    Find pages similar to a competitor's site with `exa_find_similar`, then pull full content with `exa_get_contents`
  </Card>

  <Card title="Multi-step deep research" icon="telescope">
    Kick off `exa_deep_search` or a research agent for a complex query that needs iterative exploration
  </Card>

  <Card title="Long-running background research" icon="clock">
    Create a research agent with `exa_agent_create` and poll `exa_agent_events` while it runs asynchronously
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="exa_search results feel too broad or off-topic">
    Exa ranks by semantic meaning rather than keywords — phrase the query as a natural-language description of what you want, not a keyword string, and narrow with domain/date filters where supported.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A research agent seems stuck in progress">
    Long-running research jobs created with `exa_agent_create` are asynchronous; poll `exa_agent_get` or `exa_agent_events` for status rather than expecting a synchronous result, and use `exa_agent_cancel` if it needs to be stopped.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="exa_get_contents returns empty or truncated content">
    Some pages block scraping or require JavaScript rendering that Exa's content fetcher can't execute; fall back to `exa_search` snippets or try `exa_find_similar` for an alternate source.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>