MCP vs Agent Skills: What's the Difference and Which Do You Need?

Originally published at cosmicjs.com Two terms keep coming up in every AI developer conversation right now: MCP (Model Context Protocol) and Agent Skills. They sound similar. They're not the same thing. Here's a clear breakdown of what each is, when to use which, and how Cosmic implements both. What Is MCP? MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol developed by Anthropic that lets AI models connect to external tools and data sources in a standardized way. Think of it as a uni...