Exa Authentication and Installation Boundary

Overview

Configure an Exa client without leaking credentials or mixing API-key, MCP OAuth, enterprise managed authorization, and payment-protocol trust models. Treat credentials, queries, retrieved content, generated output, spend, and destructive state as separately governed boundaries.

Prerequisites

• The target repository, environment, Exa team, product surface, and accountable owner.
• The workload's data classification, latency and freshness promise, cost ceiling, and retention policy.
• Current first-party documentation plus credentials only for a narrowly approved live check.

Current Contract

The public REST API uses the Exa API host and an Authorization Bearer header. SDKs can read EXA_API_KEY. Team Management uses a separately enabled service key against the admin API; hosted MCP normally uses OAuth, while enterprise managed authorization currently requires an eligible Exa organization, Claude organization, and Okta setup.

Authentication

For normal REST work, inject EXA_API_KEY from an approved server-side secret manager and send it only as Authorization: Bearer to the configured first-party Exa API host. Team Management service keys, hosted MCP OAuth or enterprise managed authorization, and payment-protocol calls are separate trust models. Never print, commit, place in a URL, or expose a credential to an untrusted client.