LAYER 05 · Scale beyond one agent

Skills, MCP, LSP, and Web capabilities

Operating guides, dynamic tools, code semantics, and internet access each keep an independent service boundary

19 min4 source anchorsupstream@47f9438
discover → normalize → register → same tool pipeline
The question this chapter resolves

Skills and plugins both extend agents—why are they not the same?

Build intuition

A skill is an operating procedure for the worker. A plugin installs machinery. MCP is an external equipment protocol. LSP is a specialized code measurement instrument.

MECHANISM

Mechanism

ctx.skills merges provider catalogs. tool-skill first shows a catalog and injects full bodies on demand; content enters model context without registering JavaScript services.

MCP discovers remote tools then registers them into ctx.tools. LSP exposes four normalized queries without protocol escape hatches. Web search/fetch providers sit behind stable tool-web names.

Step 1 of 5

Discover

Scan skill files, MCP servers, or provider registrations.

INVARIANTS

What extensions must preserve

  • MCP tools cannot bypass ctx.tools
  • Skill bodies are model context, not trusted code
  • LSP providers must translate into normalized results
FAILURE MODES

The tempting wrong turns

  • ×Executing a skill as arbitrary plugin code
  • ×Trusting MCP schemas as internal types without normalization
  • ×Exposing a generic LSP request escape hatch
VERIFY IN SOURCE

Do not trust the conclusion—verify it

These anchors are pinned to official deepseek-harness@47f9438; account for later breaking changes when reading current upstream.

KNOWLEDGE CHECK

Pause for ten seconds before revealing

Why register discovered MCP tools into ctx.tools?

Why the next chapter follows

The capability map is complete. The final layer turns it into four extension tasks: tools, providers, surfaces, and product composition.

Learn DeepSeek Harness

An independent learning project. Explanations derive from source; upstream remains authoritative.