Claude Code Agents, Skills, Hooks, and MCP Explained
Understand Claude Code agents, subagents, skills, hooks, and MCP. Learn when to use each feature to get better results with less effort.
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Skills Setup Guide
Complete Guide to Setting Up Claude Code Skills
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between agents and subagents in Claude Code?
An agent is Claude Code itself—the main AI assistant you interact with. A subagent is a specialized worker that Claude spawns to handle specific tasks in isolation, with its own context window. Use subagents for tasks with verbose output, parallel work, or when you want to restrict tool access.
What are Claude Code skills?
Skills are reusable instruction sets that Claude follows automatically. Unlike subagents that run separately, skills are injected into your main conversation when relevant. Create skills for repeated processes like brand voice guidelines, code review checklists, or report formatting.
What is the difference between Skills and CLAUDE.md?
Skills are personal preferences that follow you across projects (brand voice, formatting style). CLAUDE.md is project-specific context that lives in your project folder and is visible to anyone with repo access. Use both together: CLAUDE.md for project context, Skills for personal standards.
What are hooks in Claude Code?
Hooks are automated actions that trigger at specific moments—like before/after file edits or commands. Use hooks for auto-backups, running linters after changes, logging Claude's actions, or notifications when tasks complete.
What is MCP in Claude Code?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects Claude to external tools and services like databases, APIs, and custom systems. It's an advanced feature that lets Claude query PostgreSQL directly, post to Slack, or access your company's internal tools.
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