TonyDua/dsh-web-search-exa

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Zero-config Exa web search for DeepSeek Harness (dsh): no API key required — a WebSearchProvider for the ctx.web seam with an anonymous MCP fallback plus a keyed REST path.

Built with deepseek-v4-flash inside DeepSeek Harness (dsh).

Features

• 🆓 Zero-config, keyless by default — searches route through Exa's hosted MCP server (mcp.exa.ai/mcp) with no credentials at all (Exa's documented unauthenticated public MCP, rate-limited).
• 🔑 Keyed REST upgrade — set EXA_API_KEY and it automatically switches to Exa's POST /search REST API (higher limits, no behavior change).
• 🔌 Drop-in provider — registers into the dsh ctx.web seam; the existing model-facing web_search / web_fetch tools, prompt sections, and result cards work unchanged.
• 🎛️ providerId switch — can coexist with the official @deepseek-ai/dsh-web-search-exa package in one profile (no duplicate-id collisions, no silent overrides).
• 📦 npm-publishable — MIT, ESM, bundled types, files limited to lib/.

Why this package exists (vs. the official one)

The DeepSeek Harness ships an official Exa provider, @deepseek-ai/dsh-web-search-exa. This package is its zero-config variant: it adds the anonymous MCP fallback the official one does not have, and keeps the same keyed REST behavior.

	Official @deepseek-ai/dsh-web-search-exa	This package @tonydua/dsh-web-search-exa
REST path (POST /search)	✅ only path	✅ used when a key is configured
Requires an API key	✅ yes — empty key makes it unavailable	❌ no — keyless anonymous MCP fallback
Anonymous MCP (mcp.exa.ai/mcp)	❌ not implemented	✅ default when no key
Zero-config install	❌	✅
Provider id	exa (fixed)	exa by default, configurable via providerId
Cordis plugin name	web-search-exa	web-search-exa
Config keys	apiKey, baseURL, searchType, numResults, highlightsPerResult	apiKey, apiKeyEnv, apiURL, mcpURL, searchType, numResults, highlightsPerResult, providerId

Which one should I use?

• You have an EXA_API_KEY and want the officially maintained package → use @deepseek-ai/dsh-web-search-exa. It is the canonical implementation.
• You want to try Exa search with zero setup, no key, no cost commitment → use this package. It degrades gracefully: anonymous MCP by default, REST automatically when a key appears.
• You want both → install both and use the providerId switch (see Coexistence).

How it works

Condition	Path	Endpoint
apiKey / EXA_API_KEY set	REST POST /search with Authorization: Bearer	https://api.exa.ai/search (configurable)
No key configured	Anonymous MCP tools/call web_search_exa (JSON-RPC 2.0, no credentials)	https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp (configurable)

The anonymous MCP path sends no credentials; attribution rides the x-exa-source: dsh-anything header. Results are normalized to the seam's WebSearchSource shape (url, title, snippet, publishedAt) and the seam enforces maxResults on the way back. Anonymous usage is rate-limited by Exa: an HTTP 429 surfaces as a WEB_PROVIDER_ERROR with a hint to configure an API key (which also switches to the REST path automatically).

Installation (into a dsh profile)

One command from npm (v0.1.3+ ships the dsh.bundle manifest — the bundle patch inserts the provider row, so no manual patch editing is needed):

dsh plugin --profile web add @tonydua/dsh-web-search-exa

Restart dsh web. Without an API key the official DeepSeek search provider is unavailable, so the seam auto-selects this provider — fully zero-config. With a key configured, select Exa explicitly in your own $DSH_HOME/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml (applied after bundle patches):

- id: web
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-web'
  config:
    searchProvider: exa

…or at runtime with the environment variable $DSH_WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=exa.

Local development checkout:

dsh plugin --profile web add ../plugins/dsh-web-search-exa

Then enable the provider and select it. Either merge into $DSH_HOME/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml (persistent):

- id: web-search-exa
  name: '@tonydua/dsh-web-search-exa'
  config:
    apiKeyEnv: EXA_API_KEY
- id: web
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-web'
  config:
    searchProvider: exa

Alternatively, select the provider at runtime with the environment variable $DSH_WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=exa (no config edit needed).

Restart dsh web for changes to take effect. The existing model-facing web_search tool then routes through this provider — no tool config changes.

Runtime singleton compatibility

@deepseek-ai/dsh-tools is a dsh runtime singleton and must resolve to one physical package instance in a profile. This provider does not depend on it; the requirement belongs to the host profile. If another third-party plugin installs @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools as a nested regular dependency instead of a peer dependency, fix that plugin's dependency declaration or make the profile package manager resolve the shared instance before debugging search errors. Otherwise dsh's agent loop can fail before the provider is called with an error such as Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'prepare').

Configuration

Key	Default	Meaning
providerId	exa	Provider id registered into ctx.web. Only change it when both this and the official package are installed (see next section).
apiKey	unset	Literal Exa API key. Empty/missing enables the anonymous MCP path.
apiKeyEnv	EXA_API_KEY	Environment variable consulted when no literal apiKey is set.
apiURL	https://api.exa.ai/search	REST search endpoint (keyed path only).
mcpURL	https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp	Exa hosted MCP endpoint (anonymous path).
searchType	auto	REST retrieval mode: auto / keyword / neural.
numResults	unset	Default result count when the request carries no maxResults.
highlightsPerResult	1	Highlight sentences requested per result on the REST path.

Coexistence with the official package

Both packages register their provider under the same default provider id (exa) and the same cordis plugin name (web-search-exa). The seam rejects duplicate ids with WEB_DUPLICATE_PROVIDER, so installing both into one profile without changes breaks at startup.

There is no silent override — coexistence is explicit, via the providerId switch:

1. Keep the official package on exa (its id is fixed).
2. Give this package a distinct id — set providerId: exa-anon (any unique string) in this plugin's config.
3. Select the anonymous variant explicitly with searchProvider: exa-anon on the web seam (or $DSH_WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=exa-anon), and keep searchProvider: exa → the official one if you want it selectable too.

- insert:
    - id: web-search-exa
      name: '@tonydua/dsh-web-search-exa'
      config:
        providerId: exa-anon
- id: web
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-web'
  config:
    searchProvider: exa-anon

Simplest alternative: install only one of the two packages per profile — the defaults then work as-is.

In the Web panel

Status: configuration is done in the profile patch layer, not the Web UI — this version ships no editable UI entry. The Settings UI only renders cards that are hand-registered by client plugins for fixed namespaces (shell, agent-loop, web-search-deepseek); it has no generic form for arbitrary plugin namespaces. What is true today:

• Plugin inventory (Settings → Plugins): the entry appears automatically as web-search-exa (@tonydua/dsh-web-search-exa) once enabled — the inventory reads the live Cordis loader, no extra code needed.
• Settings namespace (server-side): the plugin registers the web-search-exa section via installSettingsSection, so the data layer is writable — but no client card binds to it, so nothing shows in the UI. The built-in "Web search" card edits the official web-search-deepseek namespace, not this plugin.
• Changing configuration today: edit the plugin's config in $DSH_HOME/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml (fields and defaults in the table above) and restart dsh web; or set EXA_API_KEY / $DSH_WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER as environment variables. The apiKey field is role('secret'): it never appears in describe() responses.
• Search result cards: web_search calls render the usual web cards (sources, snippets, dates) through dsh-tool-web, independent of the provider — anonymous Exa results display exactly like DeepSeek ones.

Roadmap (next version): a client-side card registered into the settings.plugin.item slot bound to the web-search-exa namespace, so all fields above become editable live in Settings → Plugins (mirroring how the official cards work).

FAQ

Q: Do I need an Exa API key? No. Without a key the provider uses Exa's free anonymous hosted MCP. With a key it uses the REST API for higher limits.

Q: I got HTTP 429 / rate limited. That's Exa's anonymous-MCP rate limit. Configure EXA_API_KEY (or the apiKey field) and the provider switches to the REST path automatically.

Q: Can I run this alongside the official Exa provider? Yes — give this package a distinct providerId and select it explicitly (see Coexistence).

Q: Why don't I see a settings entry in the Web UI? This version registers the web-search-exa settings namespace server-side only; a UI card is planned for the next version. Configure through cordis.patch.yml or environment variables for now (see In the Web panel).

Acknowledgements

The anonymous MCP integration follows the web_search implementation in can1357/oh-my-pi (packages/coding-agent/src/web/search/providers/exa.ts and src/exa/mcp-client.ts) and the @oh-my-pi/exa plugin: same "REST when a key exists, credential-free mcp.exa.ai/mcp otherwise" strategy, same x-exa-source attribution header, same Title:-section response parsing. Thanks to the oh-my-pi (omp) project for pioneering the zero-config Exa integration.

Thanks also to Exa for providing and operating the free, unauthenticated hosted MCP server (mcp.exa.ai/mcp) that makes this package's zero-config default possible. Exa's hosted MCP is an official Exa product; anonymous usage is rate-limited (see FAQ).

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for all notable changes.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.