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wiki/concepts/evolution-of-agent-tooling.md

@@ -16,21 +16,25 @@ Konstantin's three-generation map of how agents get capabilities: **Tools (2022
 
 **When to use which:** Skills when tasks are unknown/diverse or tool count is ~5–50; MCP when the agent is narrow, tasks are uniform, and the same small toolset applies every time. The line blurs — Claude Code converts MCP servers *into* skills (file laid down, functions not all injected), erasing most MCP downsides. Konstantin doesn't hate MCP; its problems are largely solved.
 
+**A fourth position: skip the progression.** [[thorsten-ball]] uses none of the three generations as user-authored artifacts — no skills, no MCP servers, no slash commands — and locates capability instead in the *codebase* plus `AGENTS.md` plus a rich prompt ([[2026-07-28-agentic-engineering-10x-developer]]). [[amp]] does ship structure (Oracle/Painter/Puck sub-agents, a model/effort dial), but the vendor curates it, not the user. Read against this table, his claim is that the progression's real axis was never tools → MCP → skills but **who supplies the context and where it lives** — and that for someone working in one well-tended repo, the repo wins. See the three competing readings logged on [[skills-as-memory]].
+
 ## Evidence
 
 - Three generations, per-generation problems, skills-vs-MCP decision table, Claude-Code-turns-MCP-into-skills caveat — [[2026-07-14-skills-based-on-git]].
 - Skills as portable markdown folders across Claude/Perplexity/Gemini — [[2026-07-14-gap-between-ai-users-irreversible]].
+- The skip-it-all position; vendor-curated sub-agents in place of user-authored skills — [[2026-07-28-agentic-engineering-10x-developer]].
 
 ## Related Pages
 
 - Concepts: [[skills-as-memory]], [[harness]], [[context-as-scarce-resource]]
-- Tools: [[claude-code]], [[hermes]]
-- Entity: [[konstantin]]
+- Tools: [[claude-code]], [[hermes]], [[amp]]
+- Entity: [[konstantin]], [[thorsten-ball]]
 
 ## Contradictions / Uncertainty
 
 - "Everything changes every 6 months" — MCP was just ratified and A2A is already wanted; this map may shift quickly. Status: tentative.
+- The map assumes each generation *supersedes* the last. Thorsten's practice suggests a parallel track that never enters the table at all (repo + `AGENTS.md`), which would make the progression a history of *one* branch rather than of agent capability as such. Status: tentative.
 
 ## Next Questions
 
-- Where does agent-to-agent (A2A) sit in this progression?
+- Where does agent-to-agent (A2A) sit in this progression? *(Partial datapoint 2026-07-28: [[amp]] shipped agent-to-agent messaging and a meta-agent that spawns and controls other agents — see [[async-by-default]]. It arrived as a harness feature, not as a fourth generation of capability-delivery, which the table would not have predicted.)*