MCP servers port existing APIs into something agents can use. They also eat your context window with verbose definitions.

Skills are small markdown files with instructions for using CLI tools. They load into context only when your question matches the skill’s description.

I tested reading my reminders list through Claude Code. The Skill used 40 tokens. The MCP server used 749. Multiply that across the dozens of tools a power user touches and Skills scale better.

Some of your MCP servers are a markdown file waiting to happen.