Skills & MCPs: Start Here

Every lesson up to this point taught you how to prompt Claude Code to build things this course teaches you how to make Claude Code better at building things

There are two ways to do that. Skills and MCPs.

A skill is an instruction file that makes Claude expert at a specific task covering design, copywriting, code review, security, and testing. You install it once and every time you need Claude to do that task it draws on that expertise automatically.

An MCP which stands for Model Context Protocol is a plugin that gives Claude access to real-world tools it does not have by default: web search, GitHub, databases, email, your calendar, and external APIs. Without MCPs Claude can only work with the files on your computer. With MCPs it can connect to the rest of the internet.

Together skills and MCPs turn Claude Code from a capable generalist into a specialist team.

What You Will Learn

What skills are, where to find them, and how to install them.

How to use the official Anthropic frontend design skill and why it makes websites better instantly.

How to write your own custom skill in 10 minutes.

What MCPs are and how they are different from skills.

How to set up your first MCP covering web fetching and web search.

The most useful MCPs for builders who are not developers.

When to use a skill versus when to use an MCP.

What You Will Build

By the end of this course you will have at least two skills installed and active in Claude Code, one MCP installed and working, and a custom skill you wrote yourself that is specific to how you work and what you build.

What You Need Before Starting

Claude Code Desktop App installed and working from Track 1. A project folder from any previous course. For MCPs the Claude Code Desktop App is the easiest path because no extra setup is required for the MCP configurations covered here.

One Honest Warning

The MCP ecosystem moves fast. New servers get published every week. Some work perfectly. Some have bugs. Some require API keys and some are free. This course covers the ones that are stable and work reliably as of the time of writing.

If something does not work exactly as described, tell Claude Code what happened and ask it to help you troubleshoot. Claude Code knows what MCPs are and can guide you through setup problems in plain English.

Your Action Right Now

Open Claude Code. Type this exactly:

• What skills and MCP tools are currently available to you? List them.
• This tells you what Claude Code already has access to in your current setup. Hold onto that answer because you will compare it to what you have at the end of this course.
• Move to the next lesson.