How do I install Agentskin?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does Agentskin need an API key?

The publisher lists these environment variables: BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY, SERPER_API_KEY, TAVILY_API_KEY, APILAYER_KEY.

What transport does Agentskin use?

Agentskin runs locally over stdio.

Agentskin

by io.github.Shawn5cents

The Semantic Layer for AI Agents. Prunes noisy API data by 70%+ for token-efficient reasoning.

Power your agent

Add this server

The publisher's own command. Not a PlugMCP endpoint.

Local command

npx -y [email protected]

Credentials from the publisher

BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY — Brave Search API Key
SERPER_API_KEY — Serper.dev Search API Key
TAVILY_API_KEY — Tavily Search API Key
APILAYER_KEY — MediaStack API Key

Provider

Claude Code

BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY=<secret> SERPER_API_KEY=<secret> TAVILY_API_KEY=<secret> APILAYER_KEY=<secret> claude mcp add io.github.shawn5cents-agentskin -- npx -y [email protected]

Run in a terminal.

Claude Desktop

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "io.github.shawn5cents-agentskin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "[email protected]"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY": "<secret>",
        "SERPER_API_KEY": "<secret>",
        "TAVILY_API_KEY": "<secret>",
        "APILAYER_KEY": "<secret>"
      }
    }
  }
}

claude_desktop_config.json

Step-by-step: add this in Claude

Remote URL or a command on your machine? How the two installs differ

Run on PlugMCP

Host a copy with our keys and logs.

A new server you create. It is not this listing's official endpoint. Use the publisher install when you want their URL and their credentials.

Launch

Related MCP

Related skills

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Questions

How do I install Agentskin?: Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.
Does Agentskin need an API key?: The publisher lists these environment variables: BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY, SERPER_API_KEY, TAVILY_API_KEY, APILAYER_KEY.
What transport does Agentskin use?: Agentskin runs locally over stdio.
When was Agentskin last checked?: Last checked 2026-10-16. The Semantic Layer for AI Agents. Prunes noisy API data by 70%+ for token-efficient reasoning.

AgentSkin

Context middleware for AI agents. AgentSkin removes low-value API, JSON, and terminal noise before it enters model context.

The frozen AgentSkin 5.1 offline core evaluation also has an accepted Sparse Env execution path. AgentSkin preserves the workload correctness contract while Sparse Env owns cold/warm environment selection and lifecycle; see agentskin/docs/SPARSE_ENV.md.

What it does

AgentSkin has three primary workflows:

compress — one front door that auto-detects JSON, CLI output, or plain text.
fetch_optimized_data — fetches a public URL and applies URL-specific pruning rules when available.
reduce — compacts terminal output using Tokenjuice's rule-driven reducers.

Five advanced tools remain for compatibility and diagnostics: apply_json_semantic, classify_url, strip_ansi, estimate_tokens, and skin_reasoning.

Quick start

npx -y agentskin@latest

MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentskin": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "agentskin@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Design rule

Fidelity first, compression second. Explicit signals and URL rules are authoritative. Generic keys such as id, name, and url are only fallback signals when no explicit rule exists.

A reduction is useful only when the information required by the task survives it.

Current verification

The release gate runs the AgentSkin-owned test suite, including MCP startup/security and live HTTP integration tests. Run it with:

cd agentskin
npm ci
npm test

Benchmarks are workload-specific. The test suite prints measured reductions for its fixtures instead of claiming one universal savings percentage.

Runtime

Node.js MCP server over stdio
Tokenjuice is a normal npm dependency for CLI reduction
URL-specific semantic pruning rules for structured APIs
SSRF checks for fetches, response-size limits, rate limiting, Zod validation, and processing timeouts

Development

The npm package lives in agentskin/ inside this repository.

cd agentskin
npm ci
npm test
npm run lint
npm pack --dry-run

Credits

AgentSkin semantic pruning and MCP integration: Shawn Nichols Sr. / Nichols Transco LLC.

CLI reduction uses Tokenjuice by Vincent Koc under its MIT license.