Skills and MCP
Overview
This page helps distinguish what Skills and MCP are responsible for from a user perspective, and when Skills are enough on their own versus when MCP becomes worth deeper attention.
Separate the two layers first
| Layer | The more practical interpretation for ordinary users |
|---|---|
| Skills | Help Ghast AI complete certain kinds of tasks in a more stable and reusable way |
| MCP | Adds deeper tool capability for some skills and advanced local scenarios |
That is why they often appear together without being the same thing.
Why most users should start with Skills
For most users, starting with Skills is already enough:
- You can import the skills you actually need.
- You can observe whether a skill already satisfies the task.
- You do not need to understand MCP's deeper local tool layer on day one.
MCP only becomes important when a skill clearly requires deeper local tool support.
When MCP deserves more attention
It usually makes sense to care more about MCP only under conditions like these:
- Companion is already installed.
- A workspace is already connected and the basic local path is working.
- A skill requires extra local tooling and import alone is not enough.
If those conditions are not in place yet, MCP is usually not the right focus for first-time use.
A steadier order of use
- Import the skill first.
- Confirm whether the skill already meets the task.
- Move on to MCP only if deeper local tool support is actually required.
That order fits the pace of ordinary users better and avoids making the local capability path heavier than necessary too early.
In Ghast AI, Skills extend the assistant's task methods, while MCP supports more advanced local tool capability. For most users, the better path is to understand Skills first, then move on to MCP only when a workflow clearly requires deeper local tooling.