I wrote this after diving into both Claude Skills and MCP to understand how they differ architecturally.
TL;DR: Skills and MCP solve different problems and are designed to work together:
MCP: Client-server architecture using JSON-RPC 2.0 for connecting LLMs to external systems (tools, data sources, APIs). Think "universal connector" - similar to how USB-C works for hardware.
Skills: Filesystem-based system with progressive disclosure that teaches Claude procedural knowledge - how to perform specific tasks using a three-tier loading mechanism to avoid context window bloat.
The interesting part is the synergy patterns: Skills can orchestrate multiple MCP servers, or contain organization-specific standards for using MCP tools.
The article covers the technical architectures, why merging them would be inefficient, and integration patterns we're seeing emerge.
Happy to answer technical questions about either system.
subramanya1997•3mo ago
MCP: Client-server architecture using JSON-RPC 2.0 for connecting LLMs to external systems (tools, data sources, APIs). Think "universal connector" - similar to how USB-C works for hardware. Skills: Filesystem-based system with progressive disclosure that teaches Claude procedural knowledge - how to perform specific tasks using a three-tier loading mechanism to avoid context window bloat.
The interesting part is the synergy patterns: Skills can orchestrate multiple MCP servers, or contain organization-specific standards for using MCP tools. The article covers the technical architectures, why merging them would be inefficient, and integration patterns we're seeing emerge. Happy to answer technical questions about either system.