Every term in the Claude ecosystem
Short, clear definitions. Link-friendly, searchable.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard for AI assistants to communicate with external tools, data, and services.
MCP Server
A program that implements the Model Context Protocol to expose tools or data to Claude.
Claude Skill
A reusable package of instructions and context Claude can invoke on demand.
Subagent
A separate Claude instance spawned to handle a specialized sub-task in parallel.
Claude Code
Anthropic's official CLI that lets Claude read, write, and run code in your terminal.
CLAUDE.md
A markdown file that gives Claude project-level instructions and preferences.
Claude Hooks
Shell commands that run automatically on Claude Code events (tool call, session start, etc.).
Stack Builder
ClaudeWave feature to combine multiple MCP servers into a single config file.
Claude Desktop
Anthropic's Mac and Windows desktop app for using Claude with MCP servers.