Industry terminology seems to be going towards MCP and Skills
With Agents having access to both.
As seen in this screenshot there is an Agent using a Tool (another core concept) which is an Agent. I wonder though at some point if there should be “Skills” that are tools that can also reference other Skills to be used by this Agent.
Just curious what people think.
Best answer by drtanvisachar
Hello
You’re not off base at all.
Zapier’s current model is pretty deliberate. Agents are the decision makers. Tools are the things they can do, including calling another Agent. What you’re calling “skills” already exist in practice, they’re just implemented as reusable Tools or as specialized Agents.
If you want reusable capability, the two common patterns today are:
An Agent that’s exposed as a Tool for other Agents to call.
A Tool that bundles logic and actions, effectively acting like a skill.
MCP mostly standardizes how Agents talk to tools and services, not the abstraction itself.
So yeah, “skills” make sense conceptually, but in Zapier today they’re just modeled as Tools or Agents.
Dr. Tanvi Sachar
Monday Certified Partner, Tuesday Wizard
+5Hello
You’re not off base at all.
Zapier’s current model is pretty deliberate. Agents are the decision makers. Tools are the things they can do, including calling another Agent. What you’re calling “skills” already exist in practice, they’re just implemented as reusable Tools or as specialized Agents.
If you want reusable capability, the two common patterns today are:
An Agent that’s exposed as a Tool for other Agents to call.
A Tool that bundles logic and actions, effectively acting like a skill.
MCP mostly standardizes how Agents talk to tools and services, not the abstraction itself.
So yeah, “skills” make sense conceptually, but in Zapier today they’re just modeled as Tools or Agents.
Dr. Tanvi Sachar
Monday Certified Partner, Tuesday Wizard
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