---
title: "Agent Skills: what it is | Agent MCP Directory"
description: "Agent Skills: A folder with a SKILL.md file (name, description, instructions) plus optional scripts, references and assets that agents load on demand."
canonical: https://agentmcpdirectory.com/standards/agent-skills
site: "Agent MCP Directory"
last_updated: 2026-11-04
section: "Standards"
---

# Agent Skills: what it is | Agent MCP Directory

> Agent Skills: A folder with a SKILL.md file (name, description, instructions) plus optional scripts, references and assets that agents load on demand.

Source: https://agentmcpdirectory.com/standards/agent-skills
Site: Agent MCP Directory
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04

# Agent Skills

Agent Skills, maintained by agentskills.io open standard (originated at Anthropic). A folder with a SKILL.md file (name, description, instructions) plus optional scripts, references and assets that agents load on demand. Status: Open format with a published specification at agentskills.io; adopted across many agent clients.

## Fact sheet

| Name | Agent Skills |
| --- | --- |
| Maintainer | agentskills.io open standard (originated at Anthropic) |
| What it is | A folder with a SKILL.md file (name, description, instructions) plus optional scripts, references and assets that agents load on demand. |
| Status and version | Open format with a published specification at agentskills.io; adopted across many agent clients. |
| What it does not do | Does not execute anything by itself or expose remote tools; skills are instructions and files, often paired with an MCP server or CLI. |

## Dated facts

-   A skill is a folder containing SKILL.md with name and description at minimum. ([agentskills.io](https://agentskills.io/), read 4 November 2026)
-   Agents load skills by progressive disclosure: discovery (name and description), activation (full SKILL.md), execution. ([agentskills.io](https://agentskills.io/), read 4 November 2026)
-   The format was originally developed by Anthropic and released as an open standard. ([agentskills.io](https://agentskills.io/), read 4 November 2026)
-   Cloudflare's Agents SDK treats Agent Skills as files in the agent workspace (29 Oct 2026). ([developers.cloudflare.com](https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-10-29-agent-skills-from-files/), dated 29 October 2026, read 4 November 2026)
-   Mintlify exposes skill.md files as MCP resources. ([www.mintlify.com](https://www.mintlify.com/docs/ai/model-context-protocol), read 4 November 2026)

## Seen in the shared crawl

| Path | Top 10,000 found | Ora leaderboard found |
| --- | --- | --- |
| /.well-known/agent-skills/index.json | 53 of 7,435 (0.71%) | 144 of 3,364 (4.28%) |

A path counts only when the answer is the right kind of document. Many sites answer these paths with an ordinary web page, which is not counted. See [the census](https://agentmcpdirectory.com/census/).

## Compared with

-   [Agent Skills vs MCP](https://agentmcpdirectory.com/compare/agent-skills-vs-mcp/)

Edition

4 November 2026

Method

[How rows are verified](https://agentmcpdirectory.com/method/)

Data

[CSV and JSON](https://agentmcpdirectory.com/data/)

Markdown

[This page as markdown](https://agentmcpdirectory.com/standards/agent-skills/index.md)

## Sources

-   [Agent Skills specification or home](https://agentskills.io/), read 4 November 2026
-   [Agent Skills: developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-10-29-agent-skills-from-files](https://developers.cloudflare.com/changelog/post/2026-10-29-agent-skills-from-files/), read 4 November 2026
-   [Agent Skills: www.mintlify.com/docs/ai/model-context-protocol](https://www.mintlify.com/docs/ai/model-context-protocol), read 4 November 2026

Last reviewed 4 November 2026