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

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Agent Skills add plug‑in style abilities to Claude via progressive loading and sandboxed execution—simpler than MCP for repeatable work.
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- **Agent Skills** are *modular capability packs* for Claude: metadata + instructions + resources/scripts that Claude can load **only when relevant**. - The killer feature is **progressive disclosure**: Claude initially reads just `name` + `description`, then loads full instructions only after the user agrees, and executes code in a **sandbox**. - **Skills ≠ MCP**: Skills are “inside-Claude” workflow modules; **MCP** is an open protocol for connecting models to external tools/data via client/server. - Best practice: use **Skills for standardised internal work** (docs, spreadsheets, review checklists) and **MCP for external systems** (databases, SaaS APIs, live data).