Your assistant becomes more useful when it can work with the tools and habits you already have. Friday gives you three ways to extend that setup: Apps for dedicated interfaces, MCP servers for connected tools, and Skills for reusable instructions.
Each serves a different need. You can use one on its own or combine them around a project.
Apps: give a task its own workspace
Some work benefits from an interface alongside the conversation. A file tree and document view, for example, make it easier to explore a project and review its output.
Friday Apps open in their own windows and can call the Friday app API. The Workspace example shows how a dedicated interface can bring project files and readable Markdown together. Apps give familiar tasks a place to live while keeping access to the assistant and its tools.
Explore the Apps page or use the SDK guide to build an interface for your own workflow.
MCP: connect tools and services
Use a Model Context Protocol server when the assistant needs a tool or data source beyond its built-in capabilities. Friday supports remote HTTP servers and local servers that run on your machine.
For example, a service that exposes project information through MCP can make that information available during a task. Configure the server, review its tools and approval settings, then enable it for the work that needs it. What the assistant can do depends on the tools that server provides.
The MCP server guide covers connection details, authentication, and approval behavior.
Skills: save the way you like work done
Use a Skill when you find yourself repeating the same instructions. A research brief might always need a short summary, source links, open questions, and next steps. A release note might follow a format you use every week.
A Skill stores those instructions in a local folder with a SKILL.md file. It can include supporting references, templates, assets, and scripts. Select an installed Skill from chat to give the assistant that workflow for the current task.
The Skills guide explains how to import, review, and use one.
Build around one useful workflow
Consider a recurring project brief. A Skill can define the format. A connected MCP tool can supply project context. An App can help you browse the files and review the finished document. You only need the parts that help you complete the task.
Your provider choices remain part of the setup too: chat, voice, media, search, and storage can use the services you configure. Start with one task you repeat, add the missing capability, and refine the workflow from the results.