It's better if you think that the only thing that is really there is a context window.
They can add complex concepts and tools on top, but all that is is a different way to put things in the context window. Even the chat history on the web... You are not sending a message every time... It's not really a chat... the model is writing what it predicts will come next, like autocompleting a Word document that is written in a chat-like format.
So agents are like you, opening a new window and having the chat there, so you don't pollute the current window with all the tokens needed to process that question, and to use only the output here.
This is important bc of the effective context window problem. Models are more accurate the smaller the context is.
Hence, MCP tools are problematic. If you have registered many of them, the rules for using each one are added to your context, even if you don't use them.
Having a very extensive Claude.md file is also problematic.
You can use skills to instruct the model on which agents to use when requesting a specific thing. Antrophic says they have trained the model to discover on its own when to read the skill and follow the instructions you picture there, which can include Python scripts to run.
So yeah, agents help the model save context window for your current problem, skills help the model follow your instructions better, and instructions can include agent calling, and MCP is crap, you'd better ask the model to generate code to make that call
Oh, there are also slash commands. I don't really use them... if someone has a success story for them, I would love to know about it.
They can add complex concepts and tools on top, but all that is is a different way to put things in the context window. Even the chat history on the web... You are not sending a message every time... It's not really a chat... the model is writing what it predicts will come next, like autocompleting a Word document that is written in a chat-like format.
So agents are like you, opening a new window and having the chat there, so you don't pollute the current window with all the tokens needed to process that question, and to use only the output here.
This is important bc of the effective context window problem. Models are more accurate the smaller the context is.
Hence, MCP tools are problematic. If you have registered many of them, the rules for using each one are added to your context, even if you don't use them.
Having a very extensive Claude.md file is also problematic.
You can use skills to instruct the model on which agents to use when requesting a specific thing. Antrophic says they have trained the model to discover on its own when to read the skill and follow the instructions you picture there, which can include Python scripts to run.
So yeah, agents help the model save context window for your current problem, skills help the model follow your instructions better, and instructions can include agent calling, and MCP is crap, you'd better ask the model to generate code to make that call
Oh, there are also slash commands. I don't really use them... if someone has a success story for them, I would love to know about it.