# Evolution of Agent Tooling (Tools → MCP → Skills)

#concept

## Summary

Konstantin's three-generation map of how agents get capabilities: **Tools (2022–2024) → MCP (late 2024–2025) → Skills (2025→)**. Each generation trades off developer cost, context consumption, and flexibility.

## Current Understanding

| Generation | What it is | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Tools** | Function tagged and injected into the model call (LangChain/LlamaIndex) | Direct control | Every tool eats context; you write/adapt each yourself |
| **MCP** | Locally-deployed server exposing many tools via a standard protocol (Anthropic); marketplaces exist | Ready-made tools, plug-in | Dozens of tools per server → context blowout (>100 = chaos); network-load = security surface; needs a developer |
| **Skills** | Directory + `SKILL.md` (+ tools + data), two-stage loading | Hundreds without context blowout; author with text in any language; share via git/messenger | No standards yet for data/limits |

**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]], [[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? *(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.)*