Claude Code MCP deep dive: boundaries between MCP, Skills, tools, and plugins

On 2026-11-02 10:01, the DEV Community AI channel published the ninth installment of its Claude Code MCP deep-dive series, titled "Claude Code MCP Deep Dive: MCP and the boundaries with Skills, tools, and plugins." The article sets out a selection guide for where each mechanism belongs in Claude Code. Private, deterministic logic should be handled by a script bundled with a Skill. Reusable work that does not require a separate integration should be delegated to an existing local tool or executable. MCP should be reached for when the capability belongs to another process or service. Multiple related components that need to be versioned and shared should be packaged as a plugin. The piece also advises that when designing MCP servers, their boundaries should be chosen with trust and administration in mind. The summary further notes that, as covered in Part 8 of the series, Claude Code could act as both an MCP client and, per the summary text, an unfinished passage. Only this single report has been retrieved so far; there is no further material available to verify subsequent developments.