Ref - Up-To-Date Docs vs engineering-advanced-skills
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs is an MCP server published by ref-tools. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). engineering-advanced-skills is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Alireza Rezvani. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-14. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Ref - Up-To-Date Docs | |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:8b5fcfe3e4e1 Forks (GitHub): 71 Pulls (Docker Hub): 19 085 Stars (Docker Hub): 2 Stars (GitHub): 1 180 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace alirezarezvani/claude-skills | Not listed | Listed Version: 2.9.0 Forks (GitHub): 3 939 Stars (GitHub): 28 149 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Ref - Up-To-Date Docs | engineering-advanced-skills |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 1 180 (worse) | 28 149 (better) |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 19 085 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 71 (worse) | 3 939 (better) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/ref-tools-mcp) | Installs as a plugin bundle |
| Transport (differs) | stdio | Not stated |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 2 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 1, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | Not a bundle | 38 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/ref-tools/ref-tools-mcp | github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 0 | 2 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-14 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs
Ref powerful search tool connets your coding tools with documentation context. It includes an up-to-date index of public documentation and it can ingest your private documentation (eg. GitHub repos, PDFs) as well.
engineering-advanced-skills
37 advanced engineering skills: agent designer, agent workflow designer, RAG architect, database designer + schema designer + SQL assistant, migration architect, observability designer, dependency auditor, changelog generator (semantic version bumper + hotfix/rollback), API design reviewer, API test suite builder, CI/CD pipeline builder, MCP server builder, skill security auditor, skill tester, performance profiler, focused-fix, browser-automation, full-page-screenshot, git-worktree-manager, monorepo-navigator, codebase-onboarding, interview-system-designer, runbook-generator, spec-driven-workflow, secrets-vault-manager, env-secrets-manager, pr-review-expert, self-eval, tc-tracker, feature-flags-architect, kubernetes-operator, chaos-engineering, ship-gate (pre-production 8-category audit), slo-architect (error-budget + multi-window burn-rate alerts per Google SRE Workbook), and tech-debt-tracker. Agent skill and plugin for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenClaw.
How to run each
Ref - Up-To-Date Docs As a local MCP server: Docker image
claude mcp add --env "REF_API_KEY=<YOUR_REF_API_KEY>" --transport stdio ref -- docker run -i --rm -e REF_API_KEY mcp/ref-tools-mcpRequires: REF_API_KEY (secret)
engineering-advanced-skills As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills
/plugin install engineering-advanced-skills@claude-code-skillsCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of engineering-advanced-skills publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of engineering-advanced-skills publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Ref - Up-To-Date Docs · What it can do: engineering-advanced-skills · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.