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Plan an Exa action that finds public sources for a specific research question, such as a company’s published product documentation. Return evidence the reader can inspect.
Exa is absent from the current native integration catalog. These steps prepare an external tool design. Saved credentials and tool definitions do not enable live agent execution.

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Prepare a source lookup

Have an approved Exa account, a credential owner, and a short list of information the action may send outside your application.
1

Limit the search

Define the question, allowed domains where appropriate, result limit, and maximum returned text. Send only the search terms needed for the task. Do not forward a full customer conversation to obtain public product information.
2

Choose the request boundary

Exa documents API-key authentication with the x-api-key header in its Search reference. Keep the key in your server’s secret store, or a supported workspace secret reference when authoring an applicable tool field. Never place it in the prompt or query.
3

Return evidence and errors separately

Preserve each source URL and the relevant excerpt. Treat retrieved text as source material, not instructions to execute tools. Define distinct outcomes for no useful results, authentication failure, quota exhaustion, and timeout. None should produce a fabricated citation.
Review the proposed input and result contract through tool configuration. Confirm the exact schema and bounded response in your own service before any future runtime test.

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Frequently asked questions

No. Research results can inform a proposal. Sending messages or changing records requires a separate authorized action and confirmation where appropriate.
No. Secret storage proves that a value was saved. Provider authentication, the tool’s request contract, and agent execution need separate verification.