skills-search-mcp

Tool Search Tool for Claude Skills - Dynamic skill discovery with intelligent search

Implementation of Anthropic's Tool Search Tool pattern for Claude Code skills. Enables on-demand skill discovery through intelligent search, reducing context bloat while maintaining access to the full skills ecosystem.

Inspired by Anthropic's Tool Search Tool

From Anthropic's Engineering Blog:

"Rather than consuming 50-100K tokens loading hundreds of tools, Claude dynamically discovers only needed tools through search."

skills-search-mcp brings this pattern to Claude skills with registry-powered search.

Features

✅ Dynamic Discovery - Search 100+ skills without loading all upfront ✅ Token Efficient - Only load skills you actually need ✅ Intelligent Ranking - Sort by popularity, recency, or relevance ✅ Rich Metadata - Tags, download stats, ratings, author info ✅ Context-Aware - AI-powered skill recommendations

Quick Start

Installation

npx -y skills-search-mcp

Configuration

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skill-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "skills-search-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop.

Usage

You: "I need to work with PDFs"
Claude: [searches dynamically via MCP]
        Found 3 relevant skills:
        1. pdf-processor (1.2k downloads) - Extract text from PDFs
        2. pdf-merger (856 downloads) - Merge multiple PDFs
        3. pdf-to-markdown (634 downloads) - Convert PDFs to Markdown

        Want to install pdf-processor?

You: "Yes"
Claude: [installs only the needed skill]

Tool Search Tool Pattern Comparison

| Feature | Anthropic's Tool Search | skills-search-mcp | |---------|------------------------|-------------------| | Dynamic discovery | ✅ defer_loading: true | ✅ Registry search on-demand | | Token efficiency | ✅ 85% reduction | ✅ Load only queried skills | | Search algorithm | Regex / BM25 | ✅ Full-text + filters + ranking | | Popularity data | ❌ Not available | ✅ Download stats, ratings | | Metadata | JSON Schema only | ✅ Tags, authors, descriptions | | Community insights | ❌ Not available | ✅ Reviews, trending skills |

Available Tools

| Tool | Description | Token Cost | |------|-------------|------------| | search_skills | Find skills by keyword | ~200 tokens | | discover_skills | AI-powered recommendations | ~300 tokens | | popular_skills | Top downloaded skills | ~150 tokens | | recent_skills | Latest published skills | ~150 tokens | | info_skill | Get skill details | ~100 tokens |

Total: ~900 tokens for full search capability vs. 50-100K tokens loading all skills upfront.

Architecture

Claude Desktop
    ↓ MCP Protocol
skills-search-mcp
    ↓ REST API
Supabase Registry (100+ skills)
    ↓ Filtered results only
Claude's context (minimal token usage)

Why skills-search-mcp?

Advantages over Loading All Skills

Before (traditional approach):

// Load all 100 skills upfront
const skills = await loadAllSkills(); // 50-100K tokens!
// Most skills never used

After (Tool Search Tool pattern):

// Search dynamically when needed
const results = await searchSkills("pdf"); // ~200 tokens
// Load only relevant skills

Token savings: 99.6% reduction in typical use cases

Enhanced vs. Anthropic's Tool Search Tool

| Capability | Anthropic's Approach | skills-search-mcp | |------------|---------------------|-------------------| | Deferred loading | ✅ Manual defer_loading flag | ✅ All skills deferred by default | | Search implementation | DIY (regex/BM25) | ✅ Built-in full-text search | | Ranking | Manual implementation | ✅ Auto-ranked by relevance | | Discovery | Text-based only | ✅ Multi-signal (tags, downloads, ratings) | | Metadata | Static JSON | ✅ Live registry data |

Example Queries

Natural Language Search

You: "Find skills for image processing"
Claude: [searches: query="image processing"]
        → 5 results with download stats

Context-Aware Discovery

You: "I'm building a documentation generator"
Claude: [discovers: context="documentation", "markdown", "generator"]
        → Recommends: markdown-renderer, doc-builder, api-docs

Popularity-Based

You: "What are the most popular skills?"
Claude: [calls popular_skills(limit=10)]
        → Top 10 by downloads

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18
• ccpm CLI:

  npm install -g @daymade/ccpm

Related Packages

• claude-skills-mcp - Full package manager (install, list, update)
• Anthropic's Tool Search Tool - Original inspiration

Learn More

• 📖 Tool Search Tool Blog Post
• 🌐 CCPM Registry
• 📚 MCP Specification

License

MIT - See LICENSE

Powered by CCPM - Claude Code Package Manager Inspired by Anthropic's Tool Search Tool