Skill vs Agent vs MCP server: when should I use each?

I'm getting lost when deciding how to expose a new capability to my Claude Code. My use case: I want it to query the company's product database (internal Postgres) and generate a formatted report. 3 paths I see: 1. **Dedicated Skill** — I write the markdown and Claude loads it when activated 2. **Specialized Agent** ("Reporter") — full persona focused on this 3. **MCP server** — expose the DB as a tool What criteria do you use to decide between the 3? I thought of: - Reuse across projects → MCP - Consistent persona → Agent - One-off task → Skill But in practice it overlaps. Is there a clear pattern?

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