Get an audit

Head to head · Tasks create · October 2026 research run

ClickUp vs Shortcut

ClickUp and Shortcut score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.9 (C) and 60.2 (C). Shortcut leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do tasks create.

ClickUpMango Technologies, Inc. DBA ClickUp · HTTP API C60.9/100#381 of 722 ShortcutShortcut Software Company · HTTP API C60.2/100#411 of 722

Which one, for what

ClickUp C

Good for Teams already working in ClickUp that want an assistant to create and update tasks, comment, log time and read Docs through one OAuth connection.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 74 against 64
  • Security & auth, 64 against 54

Watch for

MCP calls are capped per rolling 24 hours without the Everything AI add-on, 100 on Free Forever and 300 on Unlimited, per Workspace and client

Shortcut C

Good for Software teams already on Shortcut that want an agent to search, create and update stories, epics, iterations and docs, and coding agents that pick up assigned stories.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 57 against 48
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

The v3 docs still allow the API token as a token query parameter, marked deprecated with no removal date

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClickUpShortcutEdge
Reliability16%207464ClickUp +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27475Shortcut +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.24857Shortcut +9
Security & auth14%17.56454ClickUp +10
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85473Shortcut +19
Transparency & trust7%8.87573ClickUp +2
Negative events≤1500
Total60.9 · C60.2 · C

Facts side by side

FactClickUpShortcut
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorMango Technologies, Inc. DBA ClickUpShortcut Software Company
Hosted endpointhttps://api.clickup.comhttps://api.app.shortcut.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under ClickUp's Terms of Service and Developer Terms. The clickup-plugin repository on GitHub is MITProprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT
Tools exposed48none
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-182026-09-22
Terms last updated2025-06-272025-09-18
Privacy policy last updated2026-06-022025-07-11
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularitynone142 stars, 103k npm/wk

Verdicts

ClickUp

The hosted MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, dynamic client registration and read and write scopes, and works on the Free Forever plan. Without the Everything AI add-on, MCP calls are capped at 100 to 25,000 per rolling 24 hours by plan. No API changelog, deprecation policy, official SDK or SLA was found.

Shortcut

REST API v3 and the hosted MCP server are included on the Free plan, with downloadable OpenAPI files and OAuth scopes down to story or comment writes on the MCP side. The API still accepts the token in a query string, and no idempotency keys, Retry-After header, uptime SLA or API changelog were found in the reviewed documentation.

Before you call either

ClickUp

  1. Connect to https://mcp.clickup.com/mcp with OAuth 2.1 and PKCE. API keys and REST OAuth tokens are refused on the MCP server
  2. Pass workspace_id on every MCP call when the user belongs to more than one Workspace, as ClickUp's own skills instruct
  3. Budget MCP calls. Each tool call counts against the rolling 24-hour cap, and RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED returns retryAfter
  4. On the REST API read X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset, and page Get Tasks with page at 100 tasks a page
  5. Treat team_id in API v2 as the Workspace ID, and send dates as Unix milliseconds

Shortcut

  1. Send the v3 token in the Shortcut-Token header. v4 (alpha) takes Authorization: Bearer with sct_ro_ or sct_rw_ tokens, and v3 tokens don't work there.
  2. Create a story with name and workflow_state_id. Sending both workflow_state_id and project_id, or neither, is rejected.
  3. Use GET /api/v3/search/stories with detail=slim, page_size (1 to 250) and the next token. Many other v3 list endpoints return every record at once.
  4. Stay under 200 requests a minute and add your own backoff on 429, because no Retry-After header is documented.
  5. For MCP, connect to https://mcp.shortcut.com/mcp and request only the scopes needed, such as read or story-write.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ClickUp or Shortcut?

ClickUp and Shortcut score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.9 (C) and 60.2 (C). Shortcut leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

Do ClickUp and Shortcut need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call ClickUp and Shortcut without installing anything?

Yes. ClickUp has a hosted endpoint at https://api.clickup.com and Shortcut at https://api.app.shortcut.com.

Other comparisons with ClickUp or Shortcut

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report