Agent Skills Layer

Agent Skills Layer
Agent Skills Layer  
 NEW IN 2026  
 Skills are an emerging complement to MCP tools: composed, reusable capability bundles (instructions + optional scripts/resources) that an agent loads on demand, rather than a live tool connection. The MCP roadmap lists a formal Skills primitive as an active 2026 work item, alongside the existing ext-auth and ext-apps extension tracks. 
 Practical distinction for architecture decisions: 
 ●       MCP tools — for live, stateful, or side-effecting connections to external systems (databases, APIs, SaaS products). 
 ●   

Skills — for packaged, mostly-static know-how (a house style guide, a document-formatting procedure, a domain checklist) that doesn't need a network connection to a server. 
 ●       Both should be routed through the same permissioning and audit layer as everything else in the harness — a Skill is still executable content and should be treated as untrusted input until vetted. 
  Safety Classification for Tools 
 
 
 
 
 
 Levels 
 
 
 Skills 
 
 
 Controls 
 
 
 
 
 Low 
 
 
 Informational 
 
 
 Auto execute + log 
 
 
 
 
 Medium 
 
 
 Controlled side effects 
 
 
 Policy checks + confidence threshold 
 
 
 
 
 High 
 
 
 Financial / irreversible / legal 
 
 
 Verifier + human approval 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mandatory Rules 
 High-risk actions require: 
 ●       Human approval 
 ●       Full audit trail 
 ●       Secondary verification 
 ●       Explicit user identity