People 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:
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Agent runs Exa search internally
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Agent processes results using LLM intelligence
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Agent returns only distilled output (compact JSON or brief markdown)
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Main context stays clean regardless of search volume
Dynamic Tuning
No hardcoded numResults. Tune to user intent:
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User says "a few" → 10-20
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User says "comprehensive" → 50-100
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User specifies number → match it
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Ambiguous? Ask: "How many profiles would you like?"
Query Variation
Exa returns different results for different phrasings. For coverage:
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Generate 2-3 query variations
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Run in parallel
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Merge and deduplicate
Categories
Use appropriate Exa category depending on what you need:
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people → LinkedIn profiles, public bios (primary for discovery)
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personal site → personal blogs, portfolio sites, about pages
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news → press mentions, interviews, speaker bios
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No category (type: "auto" ) → general web results, broader context
Start with category: "people" for profile discovery, then use other categories or no category with livecrawl: "fallback" for deeper research on specific individuals.
Category-Specific Filter Restrictions
When using category: "people" , these parameters cause errors:
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startPublishedDate / endPublishedDate
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startCrawlDate / endCrawlDate
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includeText / excludeText
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excludeDomains
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includeDomains — LinkedIn domains only (e.g., "linkedin.com")
When searching without a category, all parameters are available (but includeText /excludeText still only support single-item arrays).
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:
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Exa returns insufficient results
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Content is auth-gated
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Dynamic pages need JavaScript
Examples
Discovery: find people by role
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "VP Engineering AI infrastructure", "category": "people", "numResults": 20, "type": "auto" }
With query variations
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "machine learning engineer San Francisco", "category": "people", "additionalQueries": ["ML engineer SF", "AI engineer Bay Area"], "numResults": 25, "type": "deep" }
Deep dive: research a specific person
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "Dario Amodei Anthropic CEO background", "type": "auto", "livecrawl": "fallback", "numResults": 15 }
News mentions
web_search_advanced_exa { "query": "Dario Amodei interview", "category": "news", "numResults": 10, "startPublishedDate": "2024-01-01" }
Output Format
Return:
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Results (name, title, company, location if available)
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Sources (Profile URLs)
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Notes (profile completeness, verification status)