# Claude Agents and Skills: Differences in Context Windows and On-Demand Instructions

DevFeed: [Claude Agents and Skills: Differences in Context Windows and On-Demand Instructions](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/claude-agents-vs-skills-which-one-do-you-actually-need-55974.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.developersdigest.tech/blog/claude-agents-vs-skills>)

Author: Developers Digest

Published: 2026-06-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Developers Digest](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/developers-digest.md>)

Topics: [Claude](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/claude.md>), [context window](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/context-window.md>), [context](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/context.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai-agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agents.md>), [anthropic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/anthropic.md>), [claude](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude.md>), [claude-code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/claude-code.md>), [context-window](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/context-window.md>), [developer-tools](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer-tools.md>), [skills](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/skills.md>)

## AI overview

The article distinguishes Claude agents as workers with their own context windows from skills as instructions loaded on demand, and presents a decision table for choosing between them.

## Source excerpt

Claude agents vs skills, untangled: agents are workers with their own context window, skills are instructions loaded on demand. Here is the decision table.