Agent skill
exa-policy-guardrails
Implement content policy enforcement, domain filtering, and usage guardrails for Exa. Use when setting up content safety rules, restricting search domains, or enforcing query and budget policies for Exa integrations. Trigger with phrases like "exa policy", "exa content filter", "exa guardrails", "exa domain allowlist", "exa content moderation".
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins-plus-skills/tree/main/plugins/saas-packs/exa-pack/skills/exa-policy-guardrails
SKILL.md
Exa Policy Guardrails
Overview
Policy enforcement for Exa neural search integrations. Exa searches the open web, so results may include unreliable sources, competitor content, or inappropriate material. This skill covers domain allowlists/blocklists (via Exa's includeDomains/excludeDomains), content moderation, query sanitization, freshness policies, and per-user budget enforcement.
Prerequisites
exa-jsinstalled and configured- Content policy requirements defined
- Redis for per-user quota tracking (optional)
Instructions
Step 1: Domain Filtering (Built-in Exa Feature)
import Exa from "exa-js";
const exa = new Exa(process.env.EXA_API_KEY);
// Exa supports up to 1200 domains in includeDomains/excludeDomains
const TRUSTED_SOURCES = {
medical: [
"pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov", "who.int", "cdc.gov",
"nejm.org", "nature.com", "thelancet.com",
],
technical: [
"github.com", "stackoverflow.com", "developer.mozilla.org",
"docs.python.org", "nodejs.org", "arxiv.org",
],
news: [
"reuters.com", "apnews.com", "bbc.com",
"techcrunch.com", "arstechnica.com",
],
};
const BLOCKED_DOMAINS = [
"competitor1.com", "competitor2.io",
"spam-farm.com", "content-mill.net",
];
async function policySearch(
query: string,
category: keyof typeof TRUSTED_SOURCES | "general"
) {
const opts: any = {
type: "auto",
numResults: 10,
text: { maxCharacters: 1000 },
moderation: true, // Exa's built-in content moderation
};
if (category !== "general" && TRUSTED_SOURCES[category]) {
opts.includeDomains = TRUSTED_SOURCES[category];
} else {
opts.excludeDomains = BLOCKED_DOMAINS;
}
return exa.searchAndContents(query, opts);
}
Step 2: Query Content Policy
const BLOCKED_PATTERNS = [
/how to (hack|exploit|attack|ddos)/i,
/(buy|purchase|order)\s+(drugs|weapons|firearms)/i,
/personal.*(address|phone|ssn|social security)/i,
/generate.*(malware|ransomware|virus)/i,
];
function validateQuery(input: string): string {
for (const pattern of BLOCKED_PATTERNS) {
if (pattern.test(input)) {
throw new PolicyViolation("Query blocked by content policy");
}
}
// Sanitize
return input
.replace(/[<>{}]/g, "") // strip HTML/template chars
.replace(/\0/g, "") // remove null bytes
.trim()
.substring(0, 500); // cap query length
}
class PolicyViolation extends Error {
constructor(message: string) {
super(message);
this.name = "PolicyViolation";
}
}
Step 3: Freshness Policy
// Enforce minimum recency for time-sensitive use cases
function applyFreshnessPolicy(
opts: any,
maxAgeDays: number
): any {
const cutoff = new Date(Date.now() - maxAgeDays * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
return {
...opts,
startPublishedDate: cutoff.toISOString(),
};
}
// Usage: only return results from the last 90 days
const results = await exa.searchAndContents("AI regulation updates",
applyFreshnessPolicy(
{ type: "neural", numResults: 10, text: true },
90 // max 90 days old
)
);
Step 4: Per-User Budget Enforcement
class ExaUsagePolicy {
private usage = new Map<string, { count: number; resetAt: number }>();
private limits: Record<string, number>;
constructor(limits: Record<string, number> = {
"free": 10,
"pro": 100,
"enterprise": 1000,
}) {
this.limits = limits;
}
checkQuota(userId: string, tier: string): void {
const limit = this.limits[tier] || this.limits["free"] || 10;
const now = Date.now();
const hourKey = `${userId}:${new Date().toISOString().substring(0, 13)}`;
let entry = this.usage.get(hourKey);
if (!entry || entry.resetAt < now) {
entry = { count: 0, resetAt: now + 3600 * 1000 };
}
if (entry.count >= limit) {
throw new PolicyViolation(
`Hourly search quota exceeded: ${entry.count}/${limit}`
);
}
entry.count++;
this.usage.set(hourKey, entry);
}
}
const usagePolicy = new ExaUsagePolicy();
Step 5: Combined Policy Enforcement
async function enforcedSearch(
userId: string,
userTier: string,
rawQuery: string,
category: keyof typeof TRUSTED_SOURCES | "general" = "general",
maxAgeDays?: number
) {
// 1. Check quota
usagePolicy.checkQuota(userId, userTier);
// 2. Validate and sanitize query
const query = validateQuery(rawQuery);
// 3. Build options with domain policy
let opts: any = {
type: "auto",
numResults: 10,
text: { maxCharacters: 1000 },
moderation: true,
};
if (category !== "general" && TRUSTED_SOURCES[category]) {
opts.includeDomains = TRUSTED_SOURCES[category];
} else {
opts.excludeDomains = BLOCKED_DOMAINS;
}
// 4. Apply freshness policy
if (maxAgeDays) {
opts = applyFreshnessPolicy(opts, maxAgeDays);
}
// 5. Execute search
return exa.searchAndContents(query, opts);
}
Error Handling
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor content in results | No domain filtering | Apply excludeDomains blocklist |
| Harmful query accepted | No content policy | Validate queries against blocked patterns |
| Stale results displayed | No freshness check | Apply startPublishedDate filter |
| API cost overrun | No usage limits | Implement per-user/tier quotas |
| Blocked policy query | False positive | Review and adjust BLOCKED_PATTERNS |
Resources
Next Steps
For architecture decisions, see exa-architecture-variants. For cost control, see exa-cost-tuning.
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
dockerfile-generator
Dockerfile Generator - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: dockerfile generator, dockerfile generator Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
branch-naming-helper
Branch Naming Helper - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: branch naming helper, branch naming helper Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
readme-generator
Readme Generator - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: readme generator, readme generator Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
makefile-generator
Makefile Generator - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: makefile generator, makefile generator Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
gitignore-generator
Gitignore Generator - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: gitignore generator, gitignore generator Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
pre-commit-hook-setup
Pre Commit Hook Setup - Auto-activating skill for DevOps Basics. Triggers on: pre commit hook setup, pre commit hook setup Part of the DevOps Basics skill category.
Didn't find tool you were looking for?