| Proposal | Venue | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SEP-2076 | MCP Spec | Agent Skills as a first-class MCP primitive |
| SEP-2093 | MCP Spec | Resource Contents Metadata and Capabilities: scoped resources/list, per-resource capabilities, resources/metadata endpoint |
| PR #2527 | MCP Spec | Recommend clients expose resource read to models — prerequisite for the resources-based skills approach |
| skills.json format proposal | MCP Registry | Skills metadata in registry schema |
Work by WG leads and active participants that directly implements the group's core patterns: SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter, skill:// resource URIs, and progressive disclosure via MCP primitives.
| Implementation | Author | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| skilljack-mcp | Ola Hungerford | github.com/olaservo/skilljack-mcp | SKILL.md, skill:// resources, tools, and prompts; progressive disclosure (index→skill→files); file watching for dynamic updates; audience annotations |
| skills-over-mcp | Keith Groves | github.com/keithagroves/skills-over-mcp | SKILL.md, skill:// resources with progressive disclosure (index→skill→documents); Zod validation against Agent Skills spec |
| skillsdotnet | Peder HP | github.com/PederHP/skillsdotnet | C# implementation: SKILL.md, skill:// resources, load_skill tool for progressive disclosure, manifest with file hashes; published on NuGet; compatible with FastMCP 3.0 |
Work by WG members and MCP maintainers that explores skills over MCP through different technical approaches than the core SKILL.md / skill:// pattern.
| Implementation | Author | Organization | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| skillful-mcp | Kurtis Van Gent | Google Cloud | github.com/kurtisvg/skillful-mcp | Progressive disclosure via 4 lightweight tools (list_skills, use_skill, read_resource, execute_code); wraps downstream MCP servers as skills using mcp.json config rather than SKILL.md; sandboxed code execution via Monty |
| Astronomer agents | Kaxil Naik | Astronomer | github.com/astronomer/agents | Production skills catalog for Apache Airflow (blueprint, migration, warehouse-init); uses SKILL.md frontmatter but distributed via plugin marketplace rather than MCP resources; demonstrates real-world skills adoption at scale |
| mcpGraph skill | Bob Dickinson | TeamSpark.ai | github.com/TeamSparkAI/mcpGraph | Declarative YAML-based tool orchestration engine (directed graphs of MCP tool calls); includes SKILL.md files as documentation; explores a complementary "no-code composition" approach to skill authoring |
External projects building on skills patterns or integrating skills into frameworks.
| Implementation | Author | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| FastMCP 3.0 Skills | FastMCP | gofastmcp.com/servers/providers/skills | Native skills provider (#2694) |
| PydanticAI Skills | PydanticAI | pydantic/pydantic-ai#3780 | Agent skills with tools-based approach |
| mcp-execution | bug-ops | github.com/bug-ops/mcp-execution | Compiles MCP servers into skill packages; --dry-run preview |
| mcp-cli | philschmid | github.com/philschmid/mcp-cli | Wraps MCP servers as CLI for progressive disclosure |
| my-cool-proxy | karashiiro | github.com/karashiiro/my-cool-proxy | MCP gateway with skills as resources via Lua scripts; result offloading, session persistence (v1.6.x) |
| NimbleBrain skills repo | NimbleBrain | github.com/NimbleBrainInc/skills | Monorepo with .skill artifact format |
| NimbleBrain registry | NimbleBrain | registry.nimbletools.ai | Registry with skill metadata support |
| NimbleBrain skill:// servers | NimbleBrain | github.com/NimbleBrainInc | skill:// resource colocation examples: mcp-ipinfo, mcp-webfetch, mcp-pdfco, mcp-folk, mcp-brave-search |
| Kiro powers directory | Kiro | github.com/kirodotdev/powers | Plugin directory bundling skills + MCP servers; active catalog (AWS, GCP migration, SAM, etc.) |
Projects that illustrate the problem space or use adjacent patterns.
| Project | Author | URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| chrome-devtools-mcp | Anthropic | github.com/anthropics/anthropic-quickstarts/…/chrome-devtools-mcp | Real-world example of the problem: skills/ folder requires separate install path |
| Strands Agents MCP server | AWS | github.com/strands-agents/mcp-server | Docs-as-MCP: TF-IDF search + doc fetch |
| AWS MCP server | AWS | docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-mcp/… | retrieve_agent_sop (skills) + call_aws (tool) |
- Agent Skills Standard: agentskills.io
- Agent Skills Discovery RFC v0.2.0 (Matt Silverlock / Cloudflare): github.com/cloudflare/agent-skills-discovery-rfc — Domain-level skill discovery using
/.well-known/agent-skills/(RFC 8615). Definesindex.jsonwith progressive disclosure,skill-mdandarchivedistribution types,$schemaversioning, SHA-256 content integrity, and archive safety requirements. Complementary to MCP-level discovery:.well-knownanswers "what skills does this domain publish?" while MCP answers "how does the agent consume them at runtime?" - Skill dependency declaration: agentskills/agentskills#110 — Discusses how skills should declare their tool/server dependencies
- Apache Airflow AIP-91 (MCP integration): cwiki.apache.org/…/AIP-91+-+MCP
- Anthropic's guidance on progressive disclosure: Equipping agents for the real world with agent skills
- "MCP and Skills: Why Not Both?" (Kurtis Van Gent): kvg.dev/posts/20260125-skills-and-mcp/ — Frames MCP (connectivity) and Skills (context saturation) as complementary; discusses hybrid approaches
- Conceptual spec visualization (Keith Groves): enact-465fb1fc.mintlify.app/specification/draft/server/skills — "What if" exploration
- llms.txt convention: llmstxt.org — Convention for making documentation LLM-accessible; used by MCPDoc in a way similar to how skills work
- AWS Agent SOPs: docs.aws.amazon.com/…/agent-sops — Pre-built operational workflows as skill-like guidance
- Video background: youtube.com/watch?v=CEvIs9y1uog