Exa is the search engine designed for AI — semantic match across the live web, structured page extraction, and citations built into every result. Connecting Exa to clariBI surfaces real-time web research as a first-class tool for AI analyses.
Why connect Exa
Web research questions usually mean opening a dozen browser tabs and pasting into spreadsheets; with Exa connected the AI engine retrieves cited snippets and structured page data directly.
You can ask "What did competitor X announce about pricing last month?", "Find articles about our category in the past 30 days", or "Pull the FAQ from this product page" and the AI engine routes through Exa.
How the connection works
clariBI talks to Exa through its hosted MCP server at https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp. Authentication uses an OAuth flow that clariBI registers itself for (no developer console setup on your side). Tokens stay encrypted server-side and never leave clariBI in clear form.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant V as Exa
U->>C: Click Authorize with Exa
C->>V: Open OAuth authorization
V-->>U: Grant read access?
U->>V: Approve
V-->>C: Authorization code
C->>V: Exchange code for tokens
V-->>C: Access + refresh tokens
C->>C: Encrypt and store credentials
C-->>U: Connection ready
Available tools
clariBI exposes the read-only Exa tools that the vendor's MCP server publishes at connection time. Write operations (create, update, delete, send, refund) are filtered out by a name-pattern blocklist before any tool reaches the analysis engine, so connecting Exa cannot modify data on the vendor side.
The exact tool inventory depends on the Exa features your account has access to. After connecting, try a few natural-language questions to see what Exa data clariBI can pull.
Data flow during analysis
When you ask a question that maps to Exa, the AI engine routes to the right tool, reads the result, and pairs the answer with a chart you can pin to a dashboard.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant AI as AI engine
participant V as Exa
U->>C: Ask a question about live web search and structured content
C->>AI: Plan the analysis
AI->>V: Call the right tool
V-->>AI: Tool result
AI->>AI: Summarize and chart
C-->>U: Answer plus visual
Setting up the connection
- Open Data Sources in the clariBI sidebar.
- Click Add data source.
- Open the MCP Servers tab.
- Click the Exa card.
- Click Authorize with Exa.
- Sign in to Exa in the popup window and grant the requested read scopes.
- Back in clariBI, give your data source a name.
- Click Finish.
Permissions and data access
OAuth scoping is granted at authorize time on the Exa consent screen. clariBI requests read-only search and extraction scopes — no content is written to Exa from this connection. Disconnect from Exa settings or from clariBI Settings.
Troubleshooting
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Rate limit exceeded" | Exa applies per-account quotas on hosted MCP usage. | Wait for the quota window to reset, narrow the query, or upgrade your Exa plan. |