AgentToolDrop

42 of 43

Exa MCP Server

Gives agents Exa web search and page fetching as MCP tools, with optional multi-step research runs

Install the Claude Code plugin

claude plugin install exa@claude-plugins-official

Copied from the project's docs at github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server

Why you'd want it

Exa hosts the server at mcp.exa.ai/mcp and it works without an API key under rate limits, so setup is a URL or a plugin install. The default tools are web_search_exa, which returns clean content for search results, and web_fetch_exa, which reads pages as markdown; advanced search with domain and date filters and Exa Agent runs for multi-step research can be turned on with the tools URL parameter. The repo also ships search and exa-agent skills that load with plugin installs.

Best for

  • Coding agents that need current web results
  • Multi-step research and list-building
  • Improving built-in web search in Claude, ChatGPT or Codex

Use it when

Your agent needs to search the web or read pages as clean markdown and you want a hosted server with nothing to install.

Skip it if

You need more than light anonymous use: the keyless server is rate-limited, and Exa Agent requires OAuth or an Exa API key.

Related tools

Same category or shared tags.

  1. Rank 32

    Firecrawl MCP Server

    MCP server

    Lets agents search, scrape, crawl and interact with web pages through Firecrawl, returning markdown or JSON

    • score 30
    • 7.6k stars
    • 11.2 stars/day since creation
    • pushed
    • v3.2.1 on
    • MIT

    Add the hosted server (OAuth sign-in)

    {
  "mcpServers": {
    "firecrawl": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp-oauth"
    }
  }
}
    Use it when, skip it if, stats for Firecrawl MCP Server

    Why you'd want it

    The server exposes Firecrawl scrape, map, crawl, search, parse, interact and agent tools, plus monitors for recurring page checks and a credit usage tool. A hosted endpoint works keyless for scrape, search and parse within rate limits, and signing in or adding an API key unlocks the full tool set. You can also run it locally with npx or Docker and point it at a self-hosted Firecrawl API with FIRECRAWL_API_URL.

    Best for

    • Turning URLs into clean markdown or schema-shaped JSON
    • Crawling many pages under one site
    • Pages that need a click before they can be read

    Use it when

    Your agent needs content from known URLs, a whole site or a search query, in a format it can read directly.

    Skip it if

    You want to drive a browser session step by step from your own client: each interact call runs to completion and returns control. Crawl, map and agent tools need a Firecrawl account or API key.

    Stats

    Stars
    7,607
    Last push
    Release
    v3.2.1,
    License
    MIT
    Pricing
    Open source
    Works with
    Any MCP client, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Claude Desktop, Docker
    Stars per day, since repo creation
    11.2
    New and rising score
    30 of 100

    Full stat block for Firecrawl MCP Server

  2. GitHub MCP Server

    MCP server Standard

    Connects agents to GitHub repos, issues, pull requests, Actions runs and security alerts

    • 33.6k stars
    • 57 stars/day since creation
    • pushed
    • v2.0.2 on
    • MIT

    Add the remote server to Claude Code

    claude mcp add-json github '{"type":"http","url":"https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer YOUR_GITHUB_PAT"}}'
    Use it when, skip it if, stats for GitHub MCP Server

    Why you'd want it

    GitHub's official MCP server lets an agent browse and search code, manage issues and pull requests, monitor Actions runs and review code scanning and Dependabot alerts. GitHub hosts a remote version at api.githubcopilot.com/mcp with OAuth or personal access token auth, and the same server runs locally from a Docker image or a Go binary. Tools are grouped into toolsets you can enable selectively, and a read-only mode removes every tool that makes changes.

    Best for

    • Agents that triage issues or review pull requests
    • Investigating CI failures from the editor
    • Teams that want a hosted server with OAuth

    Use it when

    Your agent needs to read or act on GitHub repositories, issues, pull requests or workflows as part of its task.

    Skip it if

    You do not use GitHub. Remote OAuth depends on each host configuring a GitHub App or OAuth App, so some clients need a personal access token, and GitHub Enterprise Server needs extra setup.

    Stats

    Stars
    33,623
    Last push
    Release
    v2.0.2,
    License
    MIT
    Pricing
    Open source
    Works with
    Any MCP client, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, VS Code, JetBrains, Windsurf, Zed, Docker
    Stars per day, since repo creation
    57
    Tier
    Standard, not ranked

    Full stat block for GitHub MCP Server

  3. Rank 11

    Serena

    MCP server

    Gives a coding agent symbol-level code search, editing and refactoring tools backed by language servers

    • score 51
    • 30.3k stars
    • 53.1 stars/day since creation
    • pushed
    • v2.0.0 on
    • GPL-3.0-or-later

    Install with uv

    uv tool install -p 3.13 serena-agent
    Use it when, skip it if, stats for Serena

    Why you'd want it

    Serena exposes IDE-style tools over MCP, such as find symbol, find referencing symbols, rename and replace symbol body, so the agent works with code structure instead of line numbers and text search. The default backend uses language servers, and the README lists support for over 40 programming languages. An optional paid JetBrains plugin backend adds moves, inlining, type hierarchy and searches in project dependencies.

    Best for

    • Navigating and refactoring large codebases
    • Cross-file renames and reference lookups
    • Multi-language repositories

    Use it when

    Your agent spends many steps on grep and line-based edits in a large codebase and you want it to look up symbols and references the way an IDE does.

    Skip it if

    Your projects are small and the agent's built-in search and edit tools already cope. It reports anonymous usage data on startup unless SERENA_USAGE_REPORTING is set to false, and its docs assume a trusted machine and repository and recommend a sandbox. The app moved from MIT to GPL-3.0-or-later in v2.

    Stats

    Stars
    30,271
    Last push
    Release
    v2.0.0,
    License
    GPL-3.0-or-later
    Pricing
    Open source
    Works with
    Any MCP client, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains, Windsurf, Claude Desktop, Docker
    Stars per day, since repo creation
    53.1
    New and rising score
    51 of 100

    Full stat block for Serena

For agents

The same entry, as files an agent can read without scraping this page. 

# read one entry
curl -s https://agenttooldrop.com/tools/exa-mcp.md

# list the MCP servers in the catalog
curl -s https://agenttooldrop.com/tools.json \
  | jq -r '.tools[] | select(.category=="mcp-server") | .slug'