Variflight MCP vs Skillmd
A side-by-side look at the Variflight MCP and Skillmd MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Variflight MCP for developer tools work as a local process; choose Skillmd for developer tools as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Variflight MCP when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You have the keys it needs:
VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY. - You want tools like
searchFlightsByDepArr, searchFlightsByNumber, getFlightTransferInfo.
Choose Skillmd when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
skillmd_search, skillmd_get, skillmd_install.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 67/100 · Great | 67/100 · Great |
| Install command | Confirmed | Confirmed |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | Not declared |
| Required env vars | VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 33 | 190 |
| Directory activity | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 9 | 7 |
| Full listing | View Variflight MCP | View Skillmd |
Tools & capabilities
Variflight MCP tools 9
searchFlightsByDepArrSearch direct flights by departure and arrival location plus date. Use depcity and arrcity when the user specifies cities such as BJS or SHA. Use dep and arr when the user specifies exact airports such as PEK or PVG. Provide one departure field and one arrival field, and do not mix city and airport codes for the same side. All codes must be valid IATA 3-letter codes. Date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. For today's date, use getTodayDate instead of hardcoding.searchFlightsByNumberSearch a flight by flight number and date. The flight number must include the airline code, for example MU2157 or CZ3969. dep and arr are optional and should only be provided when the exact airports are known. Date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. For today's date, use getTodayDate instead of hardcoding.getFlightTransferInfoSearch connecting flight options between a departure city and an arrival city on a specific date. Use city IATA 3-letter codes such as BJS, SHA, or LAX. This tool is for transfer or connection itineraries between cities, not for airport weather, airport facilities, or realtime tracking. Date must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. For today's date, use getTodayDate instead of hardcoding.flightHappinessIndexUse this tool when the user wants comfort-focused details for a known flight, such as punctuality, aircraft type, cabin configuration, seat comfort, meals, entertainment, or other onboard experience details. This tool works best when a specific flight number and date are already known. Do not use it for fare search, itinerary recommendation, or raw price comparison.getRealtimeLocationByAnumGet realtime flight location by aircraft registration number, also called tail number, such as B2021 or B2022. Use this only when the aircraft registration number is known. If the registration number is unknown, first try to find the flight through searchFlightsByNumber and then use the aircraft registration number from that result.getTodayDateGet today's date in local timezone (YYYY-MM-DD format). Use this tool whenever you need today's date - NEVER hardcode dates.getFutureWeatherByAirportGet the 3-day airport weather forecast for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow by airport IATA 3-letter code, such as PEK, SHA, CAN, or HFE.searchFlightItinerariesUse this tool when the user wants a concise recommended itinerary summary in natural language. It returns a text-style result that summarizes how many sale flights match, the overall lowest price, the shortest duration, and several recommended options. Use city IATA 3-letter codes only. If the user instead needs structured raw flight pricing data with each flight and cabin price, use getFlightPriceByCities.getFlightPriceByCitiesUse this tool when the user needs structured raw pricing data. It returns sale flights between two cities as a list of flights, and each flight contains cabin entries with prices. This is better than searchFlightItineraries when the caller needs per-flight, per-cabin price details instead of a natural-language recommendation summary. All city codes must be valid IATA 3-letter codes (e.g. BJS for Beijing, SHA for Shanghai, CAN for Guangzhou, HFE for Hefei).
Skillmd tools 7
skillmd_searchSearch the SkillMD registry of Agent Skills (SKILL.md files) by task, name or keywords. Returns matching skills with their owner/name slug, description, category, safety verdict and install snippet, best match first.skillmd_getFetch one skill by owner/name slug, including its SKILL.md body, provenance (source repo and pinned commit), license, safety verdict and capability flags.skillmd_installInstall a skill by owner/name slug: validates it, then writes one canonical copy (.agents/skills/<name>) and links it into the chosen agents' skill directories. Never executes scripts. The response reports the skill's capability flags (docs_only, network_calls, executes_scripts, reads_secrets) as information.skillmd_trendingTop skills on the SkillMD leaderboard, ranked by installs, saves and ratings, optionally within one category and time window.skillmd_recommendRecommend skills. With based_on set to a skill's owner/name slug, returns the top skills in that skill's category (excluding itself); without it, returns what is trending over the last 30 days.skillmd_list_savedList the signed-in user's saved skills. Requires the SKILLMD_TOKEN environment variable (a SkillMD personal access token).skillmd_lintValidate a SKILL.md against the SkillMD format and return diagnostics, capability flags and a 0-100 quality score. Pass raw SKILL.md content, or a registry slug (owner/name) to fetch and lint that skill.
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Variflight MCP
{
"mcpServers": {
"variflight-mcp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@variflight-ai/variflight-mcp"
],
"env": {
"VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY": "YOUR_VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Skillmd
{
"mcpServers": {
"skillmd": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"skillmds"
]
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
Variflight MCP is categorized under Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Skillmd belongs to Developer Tools and uses a local stdio subprocess. Pick Variflight MCP for developer tools work and Skillmd for developer tools.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client.
Variflight MCP has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. Skillmd has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add variflight-mcp and skillmd as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, Variflight MCP has a quality signal of 67/100 (Great) with 0 views, 0 installs and 33 GitHub stars. Skillmd has 67/100 (Great) with 1 views, 0 installs and 190 GitHub stars.