MCP servers, skills, plugins and agents overlap, and the same product is sometimes sold as more than one. an MCP server gives an assistant access, a skill gives it know-how, a plugin packages both for a coding assistant, and an agent does a whole job for you.
- MCP servers
- 5
- Skills
- 5
- Plugins
- 5
- AI agents
- 3
Side by side
| MCP server | Skill | Plugin | AI agent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gives the assistant | Access to a tool or data | Know-how for a job | Commands, hooks, skills and servers | A whole task, done for you |
| You use it | By asking questions | Without thinking about it | By typing a command | By writing a brief |
| Works in | Most assistants | Claude | Claude Code | Its own app |
| Runs code | Yes | Sometimes | Yes | Yes |
| Example | CrawlView | PlainSpoken | FailSafe | ConvertPilot |
A quick way to choose
- Step 1Assistant cannot see it?It needs data from a tool you use. Add an MCP server.
- Step 2Assistant does it badly?It can reach everything but gets the job wrong. Add a skill.
- Step 3Same steps every day in code?You repeat a workflow in Claude Code. Add a plugin.
- Step 4Want it done for you?You want the job done while you do something else. Use an AI agent.
MCP servers: access
An MCP server connects an assistant to one tool or data source. It is the only one of the four that most assistants understand, because MCP is an open standard. Read what an MCP server is.
Skills: know-how
A skill is a folder of instructions, and sometimes scripts, that teaches Claude how to do a job well. It loads only when the task fits. Read Claude skills explained.
Plugins: a packaged workflow
A Claude Code plugin bundles commands, subagents, hooks, skills and MCP servers into one install, so a team shares one setup. Read our plugins guide.
AI agents: the job, done
An agent takes a goal, works through the steps on its own and reports back: answering customers, researching prospects, assessing a website. The better ones show the steps they took and pass anything they cannot handle to a person. Read AI agents for small businesses.
Using them together
For search work, an MCP server such as CrawlView lets the assistant read any page the way crawlers do, a skill such as SchemaWright writes and validates the structured data, and the SearchReady plugin packages audits as commands, with CrawlView included, so a whole team runs the same checks.
SEO MCP server: page audits and an AI crawler checker for any page
Schema markup generator and validator skill for Claude, for JSON-LD
Technical SEO audits in Claude Code, traced to the file and line to fix
Questions people ask
Is a plugin the same as an MCP server?
No. An MCP server is one connection to a tool. A Claude Code plugin is a package that can include MCP servers along with commands, hooks and skills.
Can an AI agent use MCP servers?
Yes. Many agents use MCP servers to reach the tools they work with, the same way an assistant does.
Which should I start with?
An MCP server for something you check often, such as time zones or a page audit.
