# Comparisons: the AI agent primitives teams keep confusing

> Short, sourced comparisons of the primitives an AI coding agent gives you. What each one is, where it lives, when it is the right choice, and what the documentation does not say.

- Canonical URL: https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare
- Markdown URL: https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare.md
- Publisher: Skills Board (https://www.skillsboard.sh)
- Published: 2026-08-15
- Last updated: 2026-08-17

This page is the index of the Skills Board comparisons: pairs of AI agent primitives that look interchangeable from the outside, set next to each other on the dimensions that decide between them.

Each comparison opens with a short answer, then a table of what differs, then the cases where each side is the wrong pick. Every section names the first-party documentation behind it, and every page carries the date its claims were last checked. Where the documentation is silent, the page says so.

## Comparisons

- [Claude skills vs subagents](https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare/claude-skills-vs-subagents): Two Claude Code primitives that look interchangeable and are not. One loads instructions into your conversation, the other starts a separate run with its own context window.
- [Claude skills vs MCP (Model Context Protocol)](https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare/claude-skills-vs-mcp): The most common false choice in agent tooling. One packages what the agent should do, the other is the wire it uses to reach a system it does not own.
- [Claude skills vs plugins](https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare/claude-skills-vs-plugins): Not two formats competing for the same job. One is what you write, the other is how you ship it, and a plugin can carry skills inside it.
- [Claude skills vs slash commands](https://www.skillsboard.sh/compare/claude-skills-vs-slash-commands): Not two competing formats. The slash is the menu, the skill is the unit, and the documentation now treats a command file as a skill with fewer options.

## Related resources

- [Skills Board resources](https://www.skillsboard.sh/resources): The guide and explainer index
- [Skills Board alternatives](https://www.skillsboard.sh/alternatives): The hub for the other ways a team can share skills
- [Machine-readable site overview](https://www.skillsboard.sh/llms.txt): llms.txt, with the Markdown twin of every public page