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[Resources](https://optiview.ai/resources/) [Implementation and operations](https://optiview.ai/resources/topics/implementation/)

Architecture and workflows — October 30, 2026

# Exa Search and AI-Readable Publishing: Two Different Parts of Retrieval

Finding information and publishing information are different responsibilities. Understanding that distinction helps teams build better AI retrieval workflows.

By Optiview · Sources checked October 30, 2026

[Download this article (.md)](https://optiview.ai/resources/exa-search-and-ai-readable-publishing.md)

An AI application answering a question about a business needs a way to discover relevant information. The business, meanwhile, needs to maintain accurate information worth retrieving. These activities meet at the web, but they do not necessarily belong to the same system.

Exa's [developer documentation](https://exa.ai/docs) describes web search, page content retrieval, structured outputs and agent-oriented research capabilities. Exa is more than a conventional search-results API; its documented tools support multiple ways of obtaining and working with web information.

Optiview Publish addresses a different operational responsibility: helping a verified business prepare website content, review supplemental Narrative Graph context and publish approved information through a supported connection. The distinction is useful when designing a workflow, but it does not establish that Exa necessarily requests or uses Optiview-prepared Markdown.

## 1\. Separate the source owner from the retrieval application

| Responsibility | Primary question | Typical owner |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business source | Which facts are accurate and approved? | Publisher |
| Search and discovery | Which information is relevant to the question? | Retrieval provider or application |
| Content acquisition | What content can be obtained from the selected source? | Retrieval pipeline |
| Answer generation | How should retrieved information be interpreted? | Application or model |
| Outcome evaluation | Was the resulting answer accurate? | Application evaluator |

These are logical responsibilities, not necessarily five separate products. A provider may support several functions, and an application may combine them within one workflow.

## 2\. Identify the Exa capabilities relevant to the job

Exa's [developer quickstart](https://exa.ai/docs/get-started/quickstart) distinguishes Search for finding relevant pages, Contents for extracting known URLs, and Agent for more involved research. Its documentation also describes deeper search modes and structured output capabilities.

*   Use a search capability when the application must discover relevant URLs.
*   Evaluate content retrieval when the application already knows which URLs matter.
*   Consider research-oriented capabilities when the task requires gathering or synthesizing information across sources.
*   Inspect returned URLs, content and metadata rather than assuming a particular representation was retrieved.
*   Evaluate whether the application preserves qualifications and source attribution.

## 3\. Identify the publisher's separate responsibilities

The publisher should maintain accurate product descriptions, eligibility conditions, policies and supporting links. When an offering changes, the source should change through an authorized editorial process.

Optiview's [Publish documentation](https://optiview.ai/products/publish/) describes preparing website source, reviewing business context and publishing through a supported connection. Its [setup guide](https://optiview.ai/docs/setup/) distinguishes saved drafts, approved publications and live delivery observations.

These publishing controls do not direct Exa to select a particular source or content representation. Retrieval behavior must be evaluated separately.

## 4\. Design a conceptual retrieval-to-source investigation

1.  Choose one customer question requiring a verifiable business fact.
2.  Identify the authoritative public source maintained by the business.
3.  Document what information a retrieval application would need.
4.  If using an authorized Exa environment, inspect the actual returned sources and content.
5.  Compare the observed material with the approved published information.
6.  Record missing qualifications, representation differences and unknown retrieval behavior.

This is a proposed workflow, not a test that Optiview has executed against Exa. An application might obtain content through its own index, extraction pipeline or other mechanisms. Never infer the exact retrieval path from the appearance of a URL alone.

## 5\. Decide which problem needs attention

If authoritative source information is missing or inaccurate, the publisher has a content problem. If an application cannot find relevant pages, investigate discovery. If content is retrieved but misinterpreted, examine extraction, context and answer-generation behavior.

Use the [AI-readable website audit](https://optiview.ai/resources/ai-readable-website-audit-checklist/) to examine source readiness before attributing a retrieval failure to any particular vendor. The completed work product should be a responsibility map identifying the observed problem, evidence, owner and next action.

## Additional source context

Treat retrieval capability and publication governance as separate architectural responsibilities. Evaluate their interaction through observed responses rather than assuming a documented integration or downstream outcome.

Make your brand easier for AI to understand.

### Explore

[Website publishing](https://optiview.ai/products/publish/) · [Developer tools](https://optiview.ai/products/#developers) · [Pricing](https://optiview.ai/pricing/)

### Learn

[Guides](https://optiview.ai/resources/) · [Developer docs](https://optiview.ai/developers/) · [Research](https://optiview.ai/proof/) · [FAQ](https://optiview.ai/faq/)

### Company

[About Optiview](https://optiview.ai/about/) · [Agencies](https://optiview.ai/partners/) · [Contact](https://optiview.ai/#contact) · [Privacy](https://optiview.ai/privacy/) · [Billing terms](https://optiview.ai/billing-policy/)

## Additional page links

- [Does AI receive the page your visitors see?](https://optiview.ai/resources/website-platforms-ai-readability/) — Continue reading
- [Four files. Four different jobs.](https://optiview.ai/resources/four-discovery-files/) — Continue reading
- [How to convert HTML to Markdown for AI applications](https://optiview.ai/resources/html-to-markdown-api-guide/) — Continue reading
- [Preview a page](https://optiview.ai/demo/) — Continue reading
- [Read the setup guide](https://optiview.ai/docs/setup/) — Continue reading


---

# Published brand narrative

# Site-wide brand information

## Who we are

### Optiview — Parse, Retrieve and Publish for AI

Optiview helps businesses and developers make website information easier for AI to use. Parse converts supplied HTML into clean Markdown and source metadata. Retrieve fetches an eligible public HTTPS webpage and prepares its content. Publish helps a verified business prepare its own website content and make approved Narrative Graph context available through a supported connection.

Parse and Retrieve use application keys and a prepaid developer wallet. Publish has separate website setup, ownership checks and a subscription. Optiview does not control whether an outside AI service discovers, uses or cites the resulting content.

Applies to: Optiview

## Why we matter

### A clearer source, from website content to business context

Webpages mix useful information with navigation, layout and application code. Businesses may also have important qualifications, answers and context that are not clearly published.

Optiview gives developers a way to prepare source content for their applications, and gives businesses a way to publish the context their teams approve. Your application chooses how to use Parse and Retrieve results. Your business controls what it publishes through Publish.

Clearer publishing makes information available; it does not determine an AI system’s answer. Each outside service chooses its own retrieval, recommendations and citations.

## What we offer

### Three products, with separate jobs and clear pricing

- **Optiview Parse:** Supply complete HTML and a source URL. Receive clean Markdown, source and output hashes, parser details and processing warnings. Parse does not fetch the URL or execute JavaScript. A successful page uses 1 credit.
- **Optiview Retrieve:** Supply one eligible public HTTPS URL. Optiview checks supported access and publisher policies, fetches anonymous static HTML and parses it. It does not search the web, execute JavaScript, bypass a login or access private networks. A successful page uses 5 credits total, including parsing.
- **Developer credits:** USD $20 buys 20,000 credits shared by Parse and Retrieve. There is no developer subscription, automatic recharge or scheduled credit expiration. Failed jobs consume no credits. Applicable taxes and the total appear at checkout. Source size, quotas and retention limits apply.
- **Optiview Publish:** USD $99 per website per month plus applicable tax. Connect a verified website, review the prepared source and optionally maintain approved Narrative Graph context in Identity, Story, Offerings, Trust, Knowledge and Actions. Choose site-wide or exact-page scope. Saving drafts does not publish them. Eligible AI tools can receive prepared Markdown or HTML through supported delivery, while ordinary visitors keep the normal website.

Developer credits do not purchase Publish subscriptions. Parse and Retrieve do not add a customer’s private Narrative Graph to arbitrary third-party pages. See https://optiview.ai/pricing/ and https://optiview.ai/developers/ for the current offer and limits.

## Why trust us

### Inspect the output and understand what the evidence establishes

Developers can inspect the prepared Markdown, job status, source metadata, processing warnings and credit ledger. Retrieve records the public source response it observed; Parse identifies supplied HTML rather than claiming to verify the current origin.

Publish administrators can review parser output, the combined published-output preview, source checks and publication history. A preview is separate from a recorded live delivery. Saved edits remain separate from the active publication until explicitly published.

Our experiment pages contain selected first-party AI conversations and source comparisons. Delivery records establish what was served, not downstream ingestion, recommendations, citations or revenue. Observed language matches do not establish causation or a consistent visibility improvement. Explore the evidence and limitations at https://optiview.ai/proof/.

## Helpful knowledge

### Common questions about the three products

**Which product should I use?**
Use Parse when you already have HTML. Use Retrieve when you need Optiview to fetch one eligible public page first. Use Publish when your business wants to prepare its verified website and publish approved context.

**Do Parse and Retrieve require website ownership or DNS changes?**
No website connection is needed for these developer products. You remain responsible for source rights and permitted downstream use. Public availability does not grant a reuse license.

**How do developer accounts and keys work?**
Create a developer workspace and save the personal sign-in key and offline recovery code. Create scoped service keys for server-side applications. Email is an unverified contact identifier, not account-ownership proof or an email-only recovery method. Keep all credentials private.

**Can my agent use Optiview?**
The authenticated developer API returns prepared content for your application or model. A downloadable JavaScript client and local MCP adapter are available. Your host must authorize sources and any credit expenditure. Compatibility does not establish adoption or a partnership with an AI provider.

**Does the API include my private Narrative Graph?**
Parse and Retrieve are source-only. Verified website publishing and approved publisher context belong to the separate Publish workflow.

**Does Publish replace our website or CMS?**
No. Your website stays in its existing system. Your web team establishes and tests a supported connection. Your team reviews and explicitly publishes any Narrative Graph additions. Ordinary visitors retain the normal website experience.

**Does every AI tool get the prepared version?**
No. Delivery depends on the website connection, source eligibility and the request. Some tools explicitly request Markdown; supported AI requests may also receive prepared Markdown or HTML through eligible delivery paths. Traditional search crawlers retain the original website response. A claimed tool name does not prove the requester’s identity.

**Does the demo publish or save to our workspace?**
No. The public demo is a separate preview. Its AI-generated examples require review and do not transfer automatically into an approved publication.

**Will Optiview guarantee citations or recommendations?**
No. Optiview prepares and publishes sources. Outside AI services choose what to retrieve, use and cite.

## What to do next

### Choose your starting point

- [Compare Parse, Retrieve and Publish](https://optiview.ai/products/) to choose the right workflow.
- [Create a developer workspace](https://app.optiview.ai/developers) for self-service Parse and Retrieve, then add credits and create an application key.
- [Read the API quickstart and agent-tool setup](https://optiview.ai/developers/) for request examples, supported sources, errors, quotas and downloads.
- [Review pricing and terms](https://optiview.ai/pricing/) for prepaid credits and the separate Publish plan.
- [Preview your website](https://optiview.ai/demo/) to inspect prepared content and explore unapproved narrative examples without connecting or publishing.
- [Plan Publish setup](https://optiview.ai/onboarding/) with your web team. Publishing requires ownership checks, review and a supported connection; contact [hello@optiview.ai](mailto:hello@optiview.ai) for assisted setup.

Already using Publish? Review your Narrative Graph, publish approved changes explicitly, inspect the combined source in Markdown and check recorded delivery in Activity. Keep your existing visibility tools to study downstream AI answers.