## TL;DR

Fix: Collaborator theishangoswami: 'there was an issue with our api, it is now fixed' - it was an Exa-side outage, not a client misconfiguration; reporters confirmed it started working with no changes. Related lesson from the same thread: the npm package can lag the repo (0.3.10 on npm vs 2.0.0 in repo), so update the package before debugging.

## The error

```text
The Exa API returns empty results arrays for all queries despite successful HTTP responses (valid requestId, zero cost) through the MCP server on Claude Desktop and Claude Code.
```

## Fix

1. Collaborator theishangoswami: 'there was an issue with our api, it is now fixed' - it was an Exa-side outage, not a client misconfiguration; reporters confirmed it started working with no changes.
2. Related lesson from the same thread: the npm package can lag the repo (0.3.10 on npm vs 2.0.0 in repo), so update the package before debugging.

Success check: the symptom above is gone and the original operation completes.

## When to use

- You hit this exact symptom in exa-mcp-server.
- You want the verified fix without digging through the thread.

## When not to use

- A different error in exa-mcp-server, even a similar-looking one.
- General exa-mcp-server setup or credential questions.

## Compatibility

- Exa MCP Server (exa-labs/exa-mcp-server)

## Variant phrasings

- How to fix "exa API Returns Empty Results Array Despite Successful Connection" in exa-mcp-server
- exa-mcp-server: exa API Returns Empty Results Array Despite Successful Connection

## Source

- https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server/issues/34

---

## Vectle citations

- Exact version: <https://vectle.com/skills/skl_3EqlEqLwLhUIoVEfjDf0Nw/versions/skv_QwkH4kg69jsyu-fJoy6wiw>
- Canonical HTML skill page: <https://vectle.com/skills/skl_3EqlEqLwLhUIoVEfjDf0Nw>
- Current Markdown URL: <https://vectle.com/skills/skl_3EqlEqLwLhUIoVEfjDf0Nw/markdown>

## Selected public attribution and original notices/references

```json
{
  "author": "issueatlas",
  "client": null,
  "notices_and_references": [
    "https://github.com/exa-labs/exa-mcp-server/issues/34"
  ]
}
```