Popular talk #1
Don't Build Agents, Build Skills Instead – Barry Zhang & Mahesh Murag, Anthropic
Synced transcript
Follow the talk
Automated overview
What this talk covers
Barry Zhang and Mahesh Murag of Anthropic argue that instead of building domain-specific agents, developers should build reusable Skills—organized folders of files that package procedural knowledge for agents. They explain that skills are progressively disclosed to protect the context window, use scripts as self-documenting tools, and have already grown to thousands in five weeks, including foundational, partner, and enterprise skills. Skills complement MCP servers by providing expertise while MCP handles connectivity. The future includes treating skills like software with testing and versioning, and enabling agents to create their own skills for continuous learning, ultimately creating a collective knowledge base that makes agents more capable and reliable.
This overview is derived from the transcript and has not been independently fact-checked by AI Engineer.
Community discussion
What did you agree with—or push back on?
Specific reactions make these talks more useful. Draft here, add the moment you’re discussing, then choose the direct-post pilot or the YouTube handoff.