Claude Skills, Connectors and Plugins: A Guide for Marketers

Marketers using Claude’s Customize settings may encounter three options that sound similar but serve different purposes: skills, MCP connectors and plugins. HubSpot Marketing’s guide separates them by function. Connectors provide access to external services, skills supply instructions for completing work, and plugins make components available as a package that a team can install.

An MCP connector links Claude to an outside service through a live connection known as an MCP server. The service runs that server, allowing Claude to reach information or take actions within the user’s existing permissions. The source lists files, calendars, issue trackers and customer relationship management systems among the types of resources a connector can link to Claude.

A skill, by contrast, describes a procedure. It consists of written instructions that Claude loads when a request matches the work covered by that skill. Scripts and reference files can also accompany the instructions. For a marketing team, a skill could set out a report format, a review checklist or the brand voice to apply. It can explain how to work with information from a connector, but it cannot independently access a live external service.

Plugins address how these components are shared and installed. A plugin can bundle skills, MCP connectors, commands and sub-agents into one package. Rather than configuring each component separately for every team member, a team can share the package for installation. The distinction is that a plugin is a distribution layer, while the components inside it carry out their respective jobs.

The layers can also work together. A connector provides access to an authorized source, while a skill tells Claude how to handle the task or format the output. A plugin can then package those elements for a wider team. For example, a reporting workflow could combine access to an external service with instructions for a team’s preferred report format. The connector’s access would still operate within existing permissions.

What this means for marketers

Choose the component based on the need: use a connector for authorized access, a skill for repeatable instructions, and a plugin when those components need to be distributed together. Keeping those roles separate can help teams identify what a workflow requires before setting it up.