Ask HN: I still don't understand why AI agents need "skills"

A Hacker News user questioned the necessity of 'skills' in AI agent frameworks like Claude Code and Codex, arguing that well-organized Markdown docs referenced by an AGENTS.md file could serve the same purpose. The user asked whether skills offer a real architectural benefit or are mainly a standardization/convenience feature, noting the hype around them suggests something more.

| |||||||||||| 2 points by | I’ve asked AI a few times and I still don’t get it. Why do frameworks like Claude Code or Codex have the concept of “skills” instead of just using well-organized Markdown docs? Couldn’t I just have an AGENTS.md that points to folders of .md files and tells the agent when to read them? That feels functionally equivalent to me. What am I missing? Is there a real architectural benefit, or is it mostly a standardization/convenience thing? I doubt we’d create so much hype about skills if they’d just be a md file that’s in a skills folder. So I feel I’m missing something. | ||||||||||| Applications are open till July 27. |