AI Plugin IndexReference vs exa
Reference and exa are both search and web MCP servers. exa scores higher (100 vs 83 out of 100). exa has more GitHub stars (5.1k), and exa was updated more recently (yesterday). The table compares them side by side.
| Reference | exa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 / 100 | 100 / 100 |
| What it does | Workspace-local reference CLI/MCP server for semantic IWSDK search using externally hosted corpus/model warmup artifacts | Connect AI agents to Exa for web search, content fetching, and multi-step research. |
| Publisher | Verified: npm:@iwsdk | Verified: exa.ai |
| Grades | Maintenance A, Licence A, Quality B | Maintenance A, Licence A, Quality A |
| npm downloads a week | 1,047 | Not on npm |
| Runs | Local | Remote |
| Works with | Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, VS Code, Windsurf | Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI, VS Code, Windsurf, ChatGPT |
| GitHub stars | 345 | 5,142 |
| Last commit | 1 Oct 2026 | 19 Oct 2026 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Listed since | 20 Oct 2026 | 19 Oct 2026 |
| Install Reference | Install exa |
Questions
Is Reference or exa more popular?
exa has more GitHub stars: 5,142.
Can I use Reference and exa together?
Yes. AI assistants can load several MCP servers at once. Install both and the assistant picks the right one for each task.