OpenAI Shipped Skills Over MCP. The Spec Isn't Merged Yet.

Skills Over MCP is a proposed optional MCP extension that allows servers to deliver agent instructions, or “skills,” alongside their tools through existing resource mechanisms, using a skill URI scheme, manifests, checksums, and defined file and size limits. The draft aims to let servers provide up-to-date, tenant-specific, progressively discoverable, and integrity-verified guidance for using their tools, while treating skill content as untrusted and requiring normal authorization controls for actions. Although several organizations are already implementing it, the specification remains unmerged and optional, creating risks of fragmented support, incomplete resource implementations, chatty file delivery, and inconsistent agent skill activation. OpenAI’s implementation differs notably by importing skills as static submission-time snapshots with separate limits rather than retrieving live server-managed resources, which may limit updates and encourage developers to target vendor-specific compatibility constraints. The text also distinguishes Skills Over MCP from Agent Plugins, which are client-installed packages that can include skills and MCP configurations, arguing that the two approaches are complementary but serve different runtime and distribution roles.

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