# EXASearchTool error

**URL:** <https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/exasearchtool-error/892127>\
**Category:** Multi-Agent Systems with CrewAI\
**Tags:** week-module-1, dl-ai-learning-platform\
**Created:** [May 11, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/exasearchtool-error/892127 "2026-05-11T09:22:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Student\_G](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/dlai/user_avatar/community.deeplearning.ai/student_g/32/126144_2.png) [@Student\_G](https://community.deeplearning.ai/u/Student_G)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 9:22am UTC](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/exasearchtool-error/892127/1 "2026-05-11T09:22:31Z")

</div>

Hi all,

I’m running the lab 2 code from the course, but I get this error when the agent tries to use `EXASearchTool`:

```auto
I encountered an error while trying to use the tool. This was the error: Arguments validation failed: 1 validation error for EXABaseToolSchema
include_domains
  Input should be a valid list [type=list_type, input_value='None', input_type=str]
    For further information visit https://errors.pydantic.dev/2.12/v/list_type.

Tool EXASearchTool accepts these inputs:
Tool Name: EXASearchTool
Tool Arguments: {
  'search_query': {'description': 'Mandatory search query you want to use to search the internet', 'type': 'str'},
  'start_published_date': {'description': 'Start date for the search', 'type': 'UnionType[str, NoneType]'},
  'end_published_date': {'description': 'End date for the search', 'type': 'UnionType[str, NoneType]'},
  'include_domains': {'description': 'List of domains to include in the search', 'type': 'UnionType[list[str], NoneType]'}
}
Tool Description: Search the internet using Exa

```

Has anyone else run into this?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![magdalena.bouza](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/dlai/user_avatar/community.deeplearning.ai/magdalena.bouza/32/132963_2.png) [@magdalena.bouza](https://community.deeplearning.ai/u/magdalena.bouza)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 2:30pm UTC](https://community.deeplearning.ai/t/exasearchtool-error/892127/2 "2026-05-11T14:30:36Z")

</div>

Hey @Student_G! I suspect you might have a syntax issue in your code. You can check the solution file provided. Just click on the file browser button on the left sidebar, and navigate to the Solution folder. If you wish to run the solution file as is, you will need to copy the `utils.py` file into the Solution folder.  
Hope this helps! Please reach out again if you’re still having issues.  
Magdalena