--- title: I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills # | daily.dev description: A developer argues that MCP (Model Context Protocol) remains a superior architectural pattern over the emerging 'Skills' trend for connecting LLMs to external... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills # | daily.dev og:description: A developer argues that MCP (Model Context Protocol) remains a superior architectural pattern over the emerging 'Skills' trend for connecting LLMs to external... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ms8yEbrmH.png og:image:alt: I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills # og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills # **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 9 min read · 5 upvotes · 6 comments ## Summary A developer argues that MCP (Model Context Protocol) remains a superior architectural pattern over the emerging 'Skills' trend for connecting LLMs to external services. Skills work well as pure knowledge layers — teaching LLMs how to use existing tools, standardizing workflows, or documenting gotchas — but fall apart when they require CLI installation, manual secret management, and fragmented ecosystem support. MCP wins for service integration because it offers zero-install remote access, seamless updates, OAuth-based auth, sandboxing, and portability across clients. The author proposes a complementary model: MCP as the connector layer, Skills as the knowledge/manual layer on top. Several personal MCP projects are mentioned, including mcp-server-devonthink and MCP Nest, a tool for tunneling local MCP servers to the cloud. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@yaireo** · 2 upvotes > They are completely two different things for different purposes entirely **@ezpie** · 1 upvotes > ok they need to stop calling those .md files skills it confuses me with skills. Anyone got any better naming conventions? **@enesmacit** · 0 upvotes > What is the best source to understand MCP ? ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [MCP servers vs. skills: Choosing the right context for your AI](https://daily.dev/posts/mcp-servers-vs-skills-choosing-the-right-context-for-your-ai-zvdsezrz1) · Red Hat Developer · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [MCP & Skills for AI agents](https://daily.dev/posts/mcp-skills-for-ai-agents-oqh2e5dc6) · Daily Dose of Data Science \| Avi Chawla \| Substack · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [MCP is dead. Long live the CLI](https://daily.dev/posts/mcp-is-dead-long-live-the-cli-lmlswjqmz) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#mcp](https://daily.dev/tags/mcp) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills #","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh"},"datePublished":"2026-04-10T07:31:18.014Z","dateModified":"2026-04-10T07:31:44.227Z","description":"A developer argues that MCP (Model Context Protocol) remains a superior architectural pattern over the emerging 'Skills' trend for connecting LLMs to external...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/38580fabac406057cd0b01f6f9b17c12?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/38580fabac406057cd0b01f6f9b17c12?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":6,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":6}],"keywords":"architecture,ai-agents,claude,mcp","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I Still Prefer MCP Over Skills #"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-still-prefer-mcp-over-skills--ms8yebrmh","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"They are completely two different things for different purposes entirely","datePublished":"2026-04-11T14:21:29.887Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ms8yEbrmH#c-BrxAtBKBw","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"ok they need to stop calling those .md files skills it confuses me with skills. Anyone got any better naming conventions?","datePublished":"2026-04-14T07:18:16.553Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ms8yEbrmH#c-7gZCvuZtt","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ezpie","url":"https://daily.dev/ezpie","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/104765117?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"What is the best source to understand MCP ?","datePublished":"2026-04-16T23:11:37.493Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ms8yEbrmH#c-TwoZlcjS1","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Enes Macit","url":"https://daily.dev/enesmacit","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocLXKOnCw8C9ZpS-qgbROqxBdaI1w30tEqYswXcPRGdSiPUmwQ=s96-c"}}]} ```