exa-install-auth

Install the exa-js SDK and configure API key authentication. Use when setting up a new Exa integration, configuring API keys, or initializing Exa in a Node.js/Python project. Trigger with phrases like "install exa", "setup exa", "exa auth", "configure exa API key", "exa-js".

Quality

83%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

Pending

No eval scenarios have been run

Securityby

Advisory

Suggest reviewing before use

Exa Install & Auth

Overview

Install the official Exa SDK and configure API key authentication. Exa is a neural search API at api.exa.ai that retrieves web content using semantic similarity. Authentication uses the x-api-key header. The SDK is exa-js on npm or exa-py on PyPI.

Prerequisites

Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+
Package manager (npm, pnpm, yarn, or pip)
Exa account at dashboard.exa.ai
API key from the Exa dashboard

Instructions

Step 1: Install the SDK

Node.js (exa-js)

set -euo pipefail
npm install exa-js
# or
pnpm add exa-js

Python (exa-py)

pip install exa-py

Step 2: Configure the API Key

# Set environment variable
export EXA_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

# Or create .env file (add .env to .gitignore first)
echo 'EXA_API_KEY=your-api-key-here' >> .env

Add to .gitignore:

.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

Step 3: Initialize the Client

TypeScript

import Exa from "exa-js";

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

Python

from exa_py import Exa
import os

exa = Exa(api_key=os.environ["EXA_API_KEY"])

Step 4: Verify Connection

import Exa from "exa-js";

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

async function verifyConnection() {
  try {
    const result = await exa.search("test connectivity", { numResults: 1 });
    console.log("Connected. Results:", result.results.length);
    console.log("First result:", result.results[0]?.title);
  } catch (err: any) {
    if (err.status === 401) {
      console.error("Invalid API key. Check EXA_API_KEY.");
    } else if (err.status === 402) {
      console.error("No credits remaining. Top up at dashboard.exa.ai.");
    } else {
      console.error("Connection failed:", err.message);
    }
  }
}

verifyConnection();

Output

exa-js or exa-py installed in project dependencies
EXA_API_KEY environment variable configured
.env added to .gitignore
Successful search result confirming connectivity

Error Handling

Error	HTTP Code	Cause	Solution
`INVALID_API_KEY`	401	Missing or invalid API key	Verify key at dashboard.exa.ai
`NO_MORE_CREDITS`	402	Account balance exhausted	Top up credits in dashboard
`MODULE_NOT_FOUND`	N/A	SDK not installed	Run `npm install exa-js`
`ENOTFOUND`	N/A	Network unreachable	Check internet connectivity
`API_KEY_BUDGET_EXCEEDED`	402	Spending limit reached	Increase budget in dashboard

Examples

With dotenv (Node.js)

import "dotenv/config";
import Exa from "exa-js";

const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);

With Validation

function createExaClient(): Exa {
  const apiKey = process.env.EXA_API_KEY;
  if (!apiKey) {
    throw new Error(
      "EXA_API_KEY not set. Get one at https://dashboard.exa.ai"
    );
  }
  return new Exa(apiKey);
}

Resources

Next Steps

After successful auth, proceed to exa-hello-world for your first search.

Repository: jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins-plus-skills
Commit: 70e9fa4

Last updated: 5 days ago
Created: 5 days ago

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