exa-labs / people-research

Skill Content

---
name: people-research
description: People research using Exa search. Finds LinkedIn profiles, professional backgrounds, experts, team members, and public bios across the web. Use when searching for people, finding experts, or looking up professional profiles.
context: fork
---

# 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:
- Agent runs Exa search internally
- Agent processes results using LLM intelligence
- Agent returns only distilled output (compact JSON or brief markdown)
- Main context stays clean regardless of search volume

## Dynamic Tuning

No hardcoded numResults. Tune to user intent:
- User says "a few" → 10-20
- User says "comprehensive" → 50-100
- User specifies number → match it
- Ambiguous? Ask: "How many profiles would you like?"

## Query Variation

Exa returns different results for different phrasings. For coverage:
- Generate 2-3 query variations
- Run in parallel
- Merge and deduplicate

## Categories

Use appropriate Exa `category` depending on what you need:
- `people` → LinkedIn profiles, public bios (primary for discovery)
- `personal site` → personal blogs, portfolio sites, about pages
- `news` → press mentions, interviews, speaker bios
- No category (`type: "auto"`) → general web results, broader context

Start with `category: "people"` for profile discovery, then use other categories or no category for deeper research on specific individuals.

### Category-Specific Filter Restrictions

When using `category: "people"`, these parameters cause errors:
- `startPublishedDate` / `endPublishedDate`
- `startCrawlDate` / `endCrawlDate`
- `includeText` / `excludeText`
- `excludeDomains`
- `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).

## LinkedIn

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:
- Exa returns insufficient results
- Content is auth-gated
- 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",
  "numResults": 15
}
```

### News mentions
```
web_search_advanced_exa {
  "query": "Dario Amodei interview",
  "category": "news",
  "numResults": 10,
  "startPublishedDate": "2024-01-01"
}
```

## Output Format

Return:
1) Results (name, title, company, location if available)
2) Sources (Profile URLs)
3) Notes (profile completeness, verification status)