Hermes

Agent Skills vs MCP Servers: Where Should the Responsibility Live?

Agent Skills vs MCP Servers: Where Should the Responsibility Live?

13 min read

Agent skills and MCP servers are often presented as competing ways to extend an AI agent. That framing is wrong: a skill teaches the agent how to work, while an MCP server gives it governed access to live capabilities. The useful question is not which standard wins, but where each responsibility should live.