Glossary
- Skill
- A reusable instruction set (typically a SKILL.md file) that teaches a coding agent how to do a specific task on demand.
- Plugin / plugin marketplace
- A curated repository that bundles multiple skills, commands, or tools together, installed as a unit.
- MCP server
- A program that exposes tools, APIs, or data sources to an agent via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — distinct from a skill, since it's registered in a client's config rather than installed as a folder of instructions.
- Agent Skills
- The open standard (originated by Anthropic, later adopted across multiple platforms) that SKILL.md-based skills follow, making a skill portable across different coding agents in principle.
- Manifest
- The metadata file describing a listing — SKILL.md frontmatter, plugin.json, or marketplace.json, depending on what kind of listing it is.
- Coding agent
- An AI tool that writes/edits code on a developer's behalf — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and similar tools, across their CLI, desktop, and web surfaces.
- Semantic search
- Search based on the meaning of a query (via vector embeddings) rather than exact keyword matching — lets you describe what you need in plain language.