Agent Skills: The “Plugins” Moment for Everyday AI There’s a specific kind of disappointment you only get after asking an LLM to “create an Excel report” and receiving… a beautifully formatted description of a spreadsheet that does not exist. It’s not the model’s fault. LLMs are great at language. They’re not inherently great at deterministic, file-producing, structure-preserving operations. That’s where Agent Skills come in: Anthropic’s answer (announced October 16, 2025) to the question: “How do we give AI real capabilities without turning every user into a developer?” LLMs are great at language. They’re not inherently great at deterministic, file-producing, structure-preserving operations. Agent Skills “How do we give AI real capabilities without turning every user into a developer?” If MCP is a highway system for AI tooling, Agent Skills are the roundabouts and on-ramps built right into Claude—fast, local, and predictable. Agent Skills are the roundabouts and on-ramps built right into Claude 1) What Exactly Is an Agent Skill? An Agent Skill is a packaged capability Claude can use when it recognises the situation. Agent Skill packaged capability A Skill typically includes: Metadata (name + description) used for routing/selection
Instructions (the playbook / workflow)
Resources (scripts, templates, helper files) that execute in a sandboxed environment Metadata (name + description) used for routing/selection Metadata Instructions (the playbook / workflow) Instructions Resources (scripts, templates, helper files) that execute in a sandboxed environment Resources Think: “a tiny, reusable workflow module” rather than “yet another prompt”. Anthropic’s docs describe Skills as organised folders of instructions, scripts, and resources, including pre-built Skills for common document work (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, PDF), plus custom Skills you can write yourself. 2) Why This Is A Big Deal: Progressive Disclosure (AKA, Don’t Stuff the Context Window) The clever part isn’t “Claude can run scripts”—lots of systems can do that. The clever part is how little Claude loads until it needs to. how little Claude loads until it needs to Claude Code docs describe a three-phase flow: Startup: load only each Skill’s name + description (keeps startup fast)
Activation: when relevant, Claude asks to use the Skill and you confirm before full instructions load
Execution: load resources and run in the execution environment Startup: load only each Skill’s name + description (keeps startup fast) Startup: name description Activation: when relevant, Claude asks to use the Skill and you confirm before full instructions load Activation: Execution: load resources and run in the execution environment Execution: In practice, that means: You don’t pay a token tax upfront for 20 Skills you might need later.
Claude can route to the right tool without being bloated with detail.
The user gets a clear “yes/no” moment before full Skill content is injected. You don’t pay a token tax upfront for 20 Skills you might need later. might Claude can route to the right tool without being bloated with detail. The user gets a clear “yes/no” moment before full Skill content is injected. This is the opposite of the “mega system prompt” era. 3) What Skills Are Great At (And Why LLMs Struggle Without Them) Problem A: “I need a real file, not a bedtime story about a file.” Without Skills, the model often produces representations of artefacts—tables in Markdown, pseudo-Excel, fake download links. representations With Skills, Claude can actually generate the artefact (e.g., .xlsx, .pptx, .docx) and hand it back. generate the artefact .xlsx .pptx .docx Problem B: Domain best practices are annoying to repeat In real work, the prompt is rarely the hard part. The hard part is the standards: standards “Use the company slide template”
“Always include a pivot table + chart + executive summary”
“In code review, flag SQL injection risks”
“For PDFs, preserve table structure and join split rows” “Use the company slide template” “Always include a pivot table + chart + executive summary” “In code review, flag SQL injection risks” “For PDFs, preserve table structure and join split rows” Skills let you bake these standards once—then reuse them consistently. Problem C: Determinism matters (especially for structured extraction) When extracting tables from PDFs or producing spreadsheets, you want repeatable output. Skills push more of the job into deterministic tooling rather than hoping the model “describes it correctly”. repeatable output 4) Agent Skills vs MCP: It’s Not Redundant, It’s Layering People see “Skills” and immediately ask: Wait, isn’t that what MCP is for? Wait, isn’t that what MCP is for? Not really. MCP in one paragraph Anthropic introduced Model Context Protocol (MCP) in November 2024 as an open standard for building secure, two-way connections between AI tools and external data sources—via MCP clients talking to MCP servers. Model Context Protocol (MCP) In other words: MCP is about connecting to outside systems (databases, file stores, SaaS tools, internal services). MCP is about connecting to outside systems Skills in one paragraph Agent Skills are about packaging repeatable workflows and execution logic inside Claude’s ecosystem, with progressive loading and sandboxed execution. packaging repeatable workflows and execution logic inside Claude’s ecosystem A useful mental model Agent Skills = built-in “shortcuts” / workflow modules (fast, local, standardised)
MCP = app ecosystem infrastructure (powerful, external, programmable, operationally heavier) Agent Skills = built-in “shortcuts” / workflow modules (fast, local, standardised) Agent Skills = built-in “shortcuts” / workflow modules MCP = app ecosystem infrastructure (powerful, external, programmable, operationally heavier) MCP = app ecosystem infrastructure Or: Skills optimise “doing the thing”. MCP optimises “reaching the thing”. Skills optimise “doing the thing”. MCP optimises “reaching the thing”. 5) The Architecture Patterns You’ll Actually Use 5.1 Skills for document-heavy work (the “office grind” you shouldn’t be doing manually) Pre-built Skills cover common doc tasks: spreadsheets, slides, PDFs, Word docs. A realistic workflow: User: “Turn this quarterly sales CSV into a management-ready workbook with a pivot table and chart.”
Claude uses a spreadsheet Skill to generate a real .xlsx artefact. User: “Turn this quarterly sales CSV into a management-ready workbook with a pivot table and chart.” Claude uses a spreadsheet Skill to generate a real .xlsx artefact. .xlsx 5.2 Skills for organisational consistency (the “one team, one way” problem) A custom Skill can encode your team’s standards: review checklist
risk scoring rubric
writing style guide
“definition of done” review checklist risk scoring rubric writing style guide “definition of done” This matters because humans forget standards. LLMs… forget them even faster unless you enforce them. 5.3 MCP for external systems (the “we need live data” problem) If you need to: query a database
call a third-party API
hit an internal service
read from a production repository query a database call a third-party API hit an internal service read from a production repository …that’s MCP territory—especially because MCP is designed as an open protocol for those client/server connections. 6) A Minimal Custom Skill Example (Tweakable, Practical) Below is a lightweight Skill that turns “messy meeting notes” into a consistent UK-style action log. SKILL.md SKILL.md ---
name: action-tracking
description: Turn meeting notes into a UK-style action log with owners, dates, and risks. Use when the user pastes notes or uploads minutes.
---
​
# Action Tracking Assistant
​
## When to use
- The user provides meeting notes, minutes, or a transcript
- They want actions, owners, deadlines, and risks in a consistent format
​
## Steps
1. Extract decisions (if any) and action items
2. Assign each action an owner (use names given; otherwise use "TBC")
3. Convert relative dates (e.g. "next Friday") into explicit dates if the date is known; otherwise mark "TBC"
4. Flag dependencies and risks
​
## Output format (must follow exactly)
### Decisions
- ...
​
### Action Log
| ID | Action | Owner | Due date | Status | Risk/Dependency |
|---:|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | ... | ... | ... | Not started | ... | ---
name: action-tracking
description: Turn meeting notes into a UK-style action log with owners, dates, and risks. Use when the user pastes notes or uploads minutes.
---
​
# Action Tracking Assistant
​
## When to use
- The user provides meeting notes, minutes, or a transcript
- They want actions, owners, deadlines, and risks in a consistent format
​
## Steps
1. Extract decisions (if any) and action items
2. Assign each action an owner (use names given; otherwise use "TBC")
3. Convert relative dates (e.g. "next Friday") into explicit dates if the date is known; otherwise mark "TBC"
4. Flag dependencies and risks
​
## Output format (must follow exactly)
### Decisions
- ...
​
### Action Log
| ID | Action | Owner | Due date | Status | Risk/Dependency |
|---:|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | ... | ... | ... | Not started | ... | Why this works: the description is written in language users actually type, which improves routing. Anthropic also explicitly recommends paying attention to name and description because Claude uses them to decide whether to trigger a Skill. Why this works: description name description 7) Safety: The Unsexy Part That Makes Skills Usable Skills run code and interact with files in an execution environment, so the safety model matters. Claude Code docs frame Skills as folders that Claude can navigate and execute within a constrained environment. Practical safety rules that hold up in real teams: Prefer official Skills or skills you authored and reviewed
Treat third-party Skills like you’d treat random shell scripts from the internet
Maintain a small allowlist; remove Skills you don’t use Prefer official Skills or skills you authored and reviewed official Skills skills you authored and reviewed Treat third-party Skills like you’d treat random shell scripts from the internet Maintain a small allowlist; remove Skills you don’t use 8) The Real Limitation: Ecosystem Lock-In (For Now) Skills are incredibly pragmatic—but they’re also ecosystem-bound: ecosystem-bound Skills are designed around Claude’s tooling and execution model.
MCP, by contrast, is explicitly positioned as an open protocol for interoperability across tools and platforms. Skills are designed around Claude’s tooling and execution model. MCP, by contrast, is explicitly positioned as an open protocol for interoperability across tools and platforms. So the trade-off is clear: Skills = speed + simplicity
MCP = reach + portability Skills = speed + simplicity Skills = speed + simplicity MCP = reach + portability MCP = reach + portability If you’re building internal workflows today, Skills are the “get it done this afternoon” move. If you’re building tooling that must survive model churn, MCP becomes increasingly attractive. Final Take: Skills Make AI Feel Less Like Chat, More Like Software The biggest shift here isn’t technical—it’s product-shaped: Before: “AI answers questions.”
Now: “AI executes workflows.” Before: “AI answers questions.” Now: “AI executes workflows.” Agent Skills push Claude closer to what office software has always promised: less time formatting and moving things around, more time deciding what matters. less time formatting and moving things around, more time deciding what matters. And that’s the quiet superpower: when execution gets cheaper, ambition gets bigger. ambition gets bigger

This story contains AI-generated text. The author has used AI either for research, to generate outlines, or write the text itself. 

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

Why Agent Skills Could Be the Most Practical Leap in Everyday AI

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