Company Research
Tool Restriction (Critical)
ONLY use web_search_advanced_exa . Do NOT use web_search_exa or any other Exa tools.
Token Isolation (Critical)
Never run Exa searches in main context. Always spawn Task agents:
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Agent runs Exa search internally
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Agent processes results using LLM intelligence
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Agent returns only distilled output (compact JSON or brief markdown)
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Main context stays clean regardless of search volume
Dynamic Tuning
No hardcoded numResults. Tune to user intent:
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User says "a few" → 10-20
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User says "comprehensive" → 50-100
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User specifies number → match it
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Ambiguous? Ask: "How many companies would you like?"
Query Variation
Exa returns different results for different phrasings. For coverage:
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Generate 2-3 query variations
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Run in parallel
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Merge and deduplicate
Categories
Use appropriate Exa category depending on what you need:
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company → homepages, rich metadata (headcount, location, funding, revenue)
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news → press coverage, announcements
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tweet → social presence, public commentary
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people → LinkedIn profiles (public data)
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No category (type: "auto" ) → general web results, deep dives, broader context
Start with category: "company" for discovery, then use other categories or no category with livecrawl: "fallback" for deeper research.
Category-Specific Filter Restrictions
When using category: "company" , these parameters cause 400 errors:
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includeDomains / excludeDomains
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startPublishedDate / endPublishedDate
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startCrawlDate / endCrawlDate
When searching without a category (or with news ), domain and date filters work fine.
Universal restriction: includeText and excludeText only support single-item arrays. Multi-item arrays cause 400 errors across all categories.
Public LinkedIn via Exa: category: "people" , no other filters. Auth-required LinkedIn → use Claude in Chrome browser fallback.
Browser Fallback
Auto-fallback to Claude in Chrome when:
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Exa returns insufficient results
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Content is auth-gated
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Dynamic pages need JavaScript
Examples
Discovery: find companies in a space
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "AI infrastructure startups San Francisco", "category": "company", "numResults": 20, "type": "auto" }
Deep dive: research a specific company
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "Anthropic funding rounds valuation 2024", "type": "deep", "livecrawl": "fallback", "numResults": 10, "includeDomains": ["techcrunch.com", "crunchbase.com", "bloomberg.com"] }
News coverage
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "Anthropic AI safety", "category": "news", "numResults": 15, "startPublishedDate": "2024-01-01" }
LinkedIn profiles
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "VP Engineering AI infrastructure", "category": "people", "numResults": 20 }
Output Format
Return:
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Results (structured list; one company per row)
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Sources (URLs; 1-line relevance each)
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Notes (uncertainty/conflicts)