Company Research

Step 1: Install or update Exa MCP

If Exa MCP already exists in your MCP configuration, either uninstall it first and install the new one, or update your existing MCP config with this endpoint. Run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http exa "https://mcp.exa.ai/mcp?tools=web_search_advanced_exa"


Step 2: Add this Claude skill

---
name: company-research
description: Company research using Exa search. Finds company info, competitors, news, tweets, financials, LinkedIn profiles, builds company lists. Use when researching companies, doing competitor analysis, market research, or building company lists.
context: fork
---

# 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:
- Agent runs Exa search internally
- Agent processes results using LLM intelligence
- Agent returns only distilled output (compact JSON or brief markdown)
- Main context stays clean regardless of search volume

## Dynamic Tuning

No hardcoded numResults. Tune to user intent:
- User says "a few" → 10-20
- User says "comprehensive" → 50-100
- User specifies number → match it
- Ambiguous? Ask: "How many companies would you like?"

## Query Variation

Exa returns different results for different phrasings. For coverage:
- Generate 2-3 query variations
- Run in parallel
- Merge and deduplicate

## Categories

Use appropriate Exa `category` depending on what you need:
- `company` → homepages, rich metadata (headcount, location, funding, revenue)
- `news` → press coverage, announcements
- `tweet` → social presence, public commentary
- `people` → LinkedIn profiles (public data)
- 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:
- `includeDomains` / `excludeDomains`
- `startPublishedDate` / `endPublishedDate`
- `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.

## LinkedIn

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:
- Exa returns insufficient results
- Content is auth-gated
- 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:
1) Results (structured list; one company per row)
2) Sources (URLs; 1-line relevance each)
3) Notes (uncertainty/conflicts)


Step 3: Ask User to Restart Claude Code

You should ask the user to restart Claude Code to have the config changes take effect.