Claude Code component directories compared on the same 6 criteria
2 columnsEvery figure below was read off that company's own page; each source URL and the date it was read are listed at the foot of this page. SkillWorks is the publisher of this table and is not one of the 2 compared. It scores these rather than competing with them.
The count its own skills catalogue printed when queried on 5 September 2026: "21,153 skills found", up from the 18,965 it reported on 14 August. The page also now carries the banner "Smithery is now a part of Arcade.dev!", so this catalogue is the one entry in this table whose owner changed during the period it covers.
Not publishedThe repository publishes no total for how many resources the list carries — its headline figures are repository figures: 52.3k stars, 4.6k forks, 1,530 commits. Read on the repository's own page on 14 August 2026.
Two catalogues under one search, and the only one of the four whose primary artifact is an MCP server rather than a Claude Code file. The site notes it "is now a part of Arcade.dev".
Skills, agents, status lines, tooling, plugins — and prose"A delectable showcase of top tier skills, ambidextrous agents, scintillating status lines, top notch developer tooling, and also we have plugins." Its table of contents also carries categories no installer covers: Documentation, Knowledge & Learning; Alternative Clients; Usage & Cost Observability.
Publishing is a first-class route with its own navigation entry, and the pricing page's FAQ addresses its cost directly under "Is publishing an MCP server free?".
Issue form, gated on age or stars"Any resource that is recommended must either: (i) Be at least 14 days old … AND show signs of active development … OR (ii) Have at least 100 stars." One at a time, via the web issue form only — "Do not open a PR" — and "resources that fail these criteria will be closed automatically". The only published maturity bar of the four.
The skills catalogue offers "Verified" as a filter alongside "My Skills" and namespace filters. The page does not publish what the verification tests, so this is the presence of a check rather than a description of one.
A human reads it; the bot does notStated plainly by the maintainer: "The bot is a mechanical form-validator, it does not review the quality of the recommended resource", and "there is no formal submission/review process at the moment … Recommendations are reviewed in a best-effort way". The check is editorial, not mechanical, and the page says so rather than implying otherwise.
Each listing carries an "Add to toolbox" action rather than a copyable file path — consistent with a hosted connection: "Connect agents to thousands of tools and services. Auth, credentials, and sessions handled for you."
Not publishedThere is no installer, CLI or manifest — the list is links and descriptions, and installation is whatever each linked project documents for itself. Read on the repository's own page on 14 August 2026.
Listings print a usage figure each — "1,652 installs", "253 installs" — but the catalogue page states no sort order and offers no sort control, so what determines the order shown is not published. Read on smithery.ai's own skills catalogue on 14 August 2026.
Not publishedEntries are grouped by category — Start Here, From Anthropic, Security, Agent Orchestration and so on — with no stated ordering inside a category and no sort control. Read on the repository's own page on 14 August 2026.
“Not published” means that company does not state the figure on the page cited at the foot of this page. It is not a claim that no such figure exists. A company that publishes no limit most likely has none, but “most likely” is not a fact, and this table prints what was read rather than what was inferred.
- Whether anything checks the item. whether the directory itself validates that a listed skill, subagent or plugin parses and loads, as distinct from checking that its author is popular
Smithery vs awesome-claude-code — items listed?
Smithery: 21,153 skills. The count its own skills catalogue printed when queried on 5 September 2026: "21,153 skills found", up from the 18,965 it reported on 14 August. The page also now carries the banner "Smithery is now a part of Arcade.dev!", so this catalogue is the one entry in this table whose owner changed during the period it covers. awesome-claude-code does not state it on github.com. The repository publishes no total for how many resources the list carries — its headline figures are repository figures: 52.3k stars, 4.6k forks, 1,530 commits. Read on the repository's own page on 14 August 2026. Read from smithery.ai and github.com on 2026-09-05.
Smithery vs awesome-claude-code — what it lists?
Smithery: MCP servers and skills. Two catalogues under one search, and the only one of the four whose primary artifact is an MCP server rather than a Claude Code file. The site notes it "is now a part of Arcade.dev". awesome-claude-code: Skills, agents, status lines, tooling, plugins — and prose. "A delectable showcase of top tier skills, ambidextrous agents, scintillating status lines, top notch developer tooling, and also we have plugins." Its table of contents also carries categories no installer covers: Documentation, Knowledge & Learning; Alternative Clients; Usage & Cost Observability. Read from smithery.ai and github.com on 2026-09-05.
Smithery vs awesome-claude-code — how something gets listed?
Smithery: Self-serve publish. Publishing is a first-class route with its own navigation entry, and the pricing page's FAQ addresses its cost directly under "Is publishing an MCP server free?". awesome-claude-code: Issue form, gated on age or stars. "Any resource that is recommended must either: (i) Be at least 14 days old … AND show signs of active development … OR (ii) Have at least 100 stars." One at a time, via the web issue form only — "Do not open a PR" — and "resources that fail these criteria will be closed automatically". The only published maturity bar of the four. Read from smithery.ai and github.com on 2026-09-05.
When should I pick Smithery, and when awesome-claude-code?
Smithery — The problem you are actually solving is connecting an agent to a third-party service, not finding a markdown file. Smithery is the only one of the four that runs infrastructure rather than publishing a list — "Connect to MCP servers with managed OAuth and secure credential storage", with a free Hobby tier at 50K RPCs a month — so the auth, credentials and session handling that make an MCP server annoying to self-host are not your problem. It is also by far the largest catalogue here. awesome-claude-code — You want a human's judgement rather than a search result, and you are browsing rather than installing. It is the only one of the four where a person decided each entry was worth your attention — "A hand-picked collection … with an emphasis on code quality, security, and originality" — and the only one that covers things no installer can install: field guides, essays, status lines, alternative clients, cost-observability tooling. At 52.3k stars it is also the single most-read document in this ecosystem, which makes it the best place to find out what exists at all.
When each of these is the right pick
SkillWorks does not sell any of these and has nothing to gain from which one you choose. It scores them. Each case below is the one that option genuinely wins.
- Smithery. The problem you are actually solving is connecting an agent to a third-party service, not finding a markdown file. Smithery is the only one of the four that runs infrastructure rather than publishing a list — "Connect to MCP servers with managed OAuth and secure credential storage", with a free Hobby tier at 50K RPCs a month — so the auth, credentials and session handling that make an MCP server annoying to self-host are not your problem. It is also by far the largest catalogue here.
- awesome-claude-code. You want a human's judgement rather than a search result, and you are browsing rather than installing. It is the only one of the four where a person decided each entry was worth your attention — "A hand-picked collection … with an emphasis on code quality, security, and originality" — and the only one that covers things no installer can install: field guides, essays, status lines, alternative clients, cost-observability tooling. At 52.3k stars it is also the single most-read document in this ecosystem, which makes it the best place to find out what exists at all.
Other Claude Code component directories compared head to head
4 moreWhat was checked, and when
5 sourcesPrices and limits move, and a page quoting a stale one is worth less than a page quoting none. Every source is printed here so a reader can check it against the day they are reading this, and a job re-fetches each of these URLs on a schedule and fails when a figure above no longer appears on the page it came from.
- Smithery, smithery.ai/skills. Items listed, What it lists, Whether anything checks the item, How the list is ordered. Read 2026-09-05.
- Smithery, smithery.ai/pricing. How something gets listed. Read 2026-09-05.
- Smithery, smithery.ai/. How you install from it. Read 2026-09-05.
- awesome-claude-code, github.com/hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code. Items listed, What it lists, How you install from it, How the list is ordered. Read 2026-09-05.
- awesome-claude-code, github.com/hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md. How something gets listed, Whether anything checks the item. Read 2026-09-05.
Last verified 2026-09-05.