# Skills & MCP

> Give agents skills from skills.sh and tools from any MCP server — installed once, handed to specific agents with an arrow.

Source: https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/skills-mcp

Two kinds of add-ons make an agent better at a job, and NeuroSquad installs both for you:

  - **MCP server**: A small program or web service that gives an agent **new tools**: read a Figma file, open GitHub issues, query a database, fetch current library docs. It speaks the Model Context Protocol, the standard every major coding agent understands.
  - **Skill**: A folder of **expert instructions** (a `SKILL.md`, sometimes with scripts and reference files) that tells an agent how to do a kind of task well: brainstorm before building, design a distinctive interface, write a proper test plan.

## How it works

**1. Find it in the catalog**

**Skills & MCP** searches the official **MCP Registry** (about 35,000 servers) and
**skills.sh** (the 20,000 most popular skills, with install counts and security scans) — as you
type. See [Catalog and installing](https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/skills-mcp/catalog).

**2. Install it once**

You see exactly what will run before anything is downloaded, and confirm. Everything goes into
NeuroSquad's own folder — nothing is installed globally, and your own agent settings are never
touched.

**3. Put a card on the canvas and draw an arrow**

An **MCP server** card or a **Skill** card stands for one installed item. Draw an arrow from it
to an agent, and that agent has it. See [Giving them to agents](https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/skills-mcp/cards).

> **Only the agents you connect see them.** An agent without an arrow to an MCP or skill card sees
> none of what you installed — not even that it exists. Five agents can share one server, or each
> get a different one.

## Which agents can use them

| Agent | Skills and MCP servers | After you draw an arrow |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Claude Code** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Hermes Agent** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Kilo Code** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **GitHub Copilot CLI** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Pi** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **omp** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **aider** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Factory Droid** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Amp** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Auggie** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Goose** | Yes | Right away, no restart |
| **Codex CLI** | Yes | On the agent's next start |
| **Qwen Code** | Yes | On the agent's next start |
| **Gemini CLI** | Yes | Right away |
| **Kimi Code** | Yes | On the agent's next start |
| **Cline CLI** | Yes | On the agent's next start |
| Other agents | No | — |

The card says the same thing next to each connected agent: **Live**, **Next start** or
**Can't use**. The last one means NeuroSquad doesn't give tools to that agent at all — the same
agents that [arrows](https://docs.neurosquad.ai/en/canvas/arrows) don't give abilities to.

## How the agent knows what it has

You don't have to tell the agent anything.

- **Skills:** the agent's `skill_load` tool lists every connected skill with its "when to use it"
line, so the agent loads the matching skill on its own before it starts a task — the same way
Claude Code's own skills work.
- **MCP servers:** each server's tools appear under the server's name, like
`framelink__get_figma_data`, with the server named in every description, plus the server's own
usage notes.
- **`neurosquad_connections`** — the tool an agent calls to see what is on the other end of its
arrows — lists the connected servers and skills too.

## Things to know

- **You approve each call to an installed server.** Its tools come from a separate server entry
(`ns-connected`) that NeuroSquad does not pre-approve, so Claude Code, Codex and Qwen ask before
each call — unless you switched your agent to a mode that approves everything itself. Hermes Agent
never asks on its own, so for it NeuroSquad asks: **Allow once**, **Allow for this session** or
**Deny** (no answer in five minutes counts as Deny). A server
that later changes its tools shows "This server changed its tools" on its card; new and changed tools stay hidden from
agents until you press **Accept changes**.
- **It's third-party code.** A server you install runs on your computer (or is a service on the
internet); a skill's text goes straight into the agent's instructions. Install what you trust —
the catalog shows the source, the exact commands and, for skills, security scans.
- **Not every server can be installed yet.** Servers published only as MCPB bundles, NuGet or
Cargo packages, and packages that start a local web server, are shown but not installable.
- **Some sign-ins only allow approved apps.** Figma's official remote server, for example,
refuses sign-in from apps it hasn't approved. Use a server that takes a personal token instead —
**Framelink Figma MCP** (`FIGMA_API_KEY`) works with your own Figma token.