# ONES vs Shortcut (slim)

> Shortcut scores 61.3 (C) to ONES's 46.9 (D) for issues and tasks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ones-vs-shortcut.md (~5,200 tokens) · this version ~3,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ones-vs-shortcut.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ones-vs-shortcut
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Shortcut scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against ONES's 46.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. ONES leads on security & auth. Both do issues and tasks.

- ONES: D 46.9, rank #1149 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ones.min.md
- Shortcut: C 61.3, rank #618 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shortcut.min.md
- ONES, good for Teams moving off Jira and Confluence who want issues, sprints, worklogs, test cases and a wiki in one tool an agent can reach. Ahead on Security & auth, 65 against 54.
- Shortcut, 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 Reliability, 69 against 25; Schema & documentation, 75 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 57 against 40; Maintenance & community, 73 against 68; Transparency & trust, 74 against 62.

| Category | ONES | Shortcut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 25 | 69 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 55 | 75 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 40 | 57 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 65 | 54 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 68 | 73 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 62 | 74 |

| Fact (where they differ) | ONES | Shortcut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | The Beautiful ONES Technology PTE. LTD. | Shortcut Software Company |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://us.ones.com/mcp` | `https://api.app.shortcut.com` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 67 | none |
| MCP registry | `com.ones/ones` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-08 | 2025-09-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-07 | 2025-07-11 |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 142 stars, 103k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Shortcut +44: ONES 25 (Graded as a hosted service on ONES.com Cloud's Open API and MCP server. No status page is linked from ones.com, the trust centre or the docs, and status.ones.com did not resolve (0). With no readable history the incident line scores 5. No rate limit with numbers was found in the developer docs index or the terms, which only reserve the right to restrict excessive traffic (0). No 429, backoff or idempotency guidance found (0). The pricing page states 99.9% uptime on Business and 99.95% on Enterprise (10). The MCP server has been in the release notes since 6.42.0 on 26 August 2025 and carries no beta label (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 25.); Shortcut 69 (Graded on the hosted lines for REST API v3 and the hosted MCP server. status.shortcut.com is a Statuspage site with API and Shortcut MCP components and history back to March 2023 (20). Read from its history feed and incident pages on 4 November 2026, the 90 days from 6 August hold four incidents. Outgoing webhooks were delayed twice on 19 October (about 35 minutes and 53 minutes, Integrations component), and GitHub processing was delayed on 27 October and from 3 November (still investigating). All are partial, none names the API or MCP component, and the July MCP incidents and the 4 August search delay have left the window, so minor only (20). The docs give 200 requests a minute (15). A 429 is documented, with no Retry-After header, backoff guidance or idempotency keys found for v3 (4 of 15). The Enterprise plan lists 'Premier support SLAs', and no uptime SLA was found (0). v3 is the current version with backwards-compatible changes only, and the hosted MCP server carries no beta label. v4 is now labelled beta and isn't graded (10).)
- Schema & documentation, Shortcut +20: ONES 55 (No downloadable OpenAPI file was found. The reference is rendered pages, and the MCP docs list tool names and one-line descriptions without input schemas (0). llms.txt with sized indexes and a Markdown copy of every page (10). Endpoint and tool descriptions state what each does in one line, with version history per endpoint but little on when not to use one (10 of 20). Parameters are typed with defaults, limits (`limit` at most 100) and required marks (10 of 15). Each endpoint lists 200, 401, 403, 404 and 500 responses with schemas and examples (10 of 15). API version 2.0, a History table per endpoint and dated release notes (15). 0 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 15 = 55.); Shortcut 75 (Swagger 2.0 and OpenAPI 3.0 files for v3 are downloadable from the docs (143 operations on 85 paths), and an OpenAPI 3.0.3 file for v4 (247 operations on 8 October, labelled beta since then, 257 operations in its reference on 4 November) is at www.shortcut.com/openapi.json. The v3 reference page lists the same 143 operations on 4 November, and the spec files themselves weren't re-read. The hosted MCP server's tool schemas need an account and were not read (25). www.shortcut.com/llms.txt links the spec, and help centre pages have Markdown copies. developer.shortcut.com has no llms.txt and is a single HTML page per version (7 of 10). 127 of 143 operations carry a description, mostly one line, with a few usage rules such as the `workflow_state_id` or `project_id` choice on story creation (12 of 20). Enums, maxLength, formats and required flags throughout (13 of 15). Every endpoint has a curl example and an example response, but errors are the same three lines everywhere (400 schema mismatch, 404, 422) with no documented error body (9 of 15). Versions are in the path (v2 deprecated, v3 current, v4 beta). No API changelog was found, although the v4 page refers to one, and API changes appear in the product release notes (9 of 15).)
- Agent ergonomics, Shortcut +17: ONES 40 (Scored on the MCP server and the Open API together. 67 MCP tools load by default (5), and a client granted fewer scope groups is limited to fewer tools (5 back). Lists take `limit` and `cursor` with project and issue type filters, and `query_issues_by_onesql` runs a filtered query (15 of 20). Error status codes are documented per endpoint with response schemas, but no error code catalogue was found (8 of 20). No idempotency keys or MCP annotations found (0). One official SDK, `@ones-open/node-sdk`, aimed at ONES Apps, and the MCP setup is one `mcp-remote` line (7 of 15). 10 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 7 = 40.); Shortcut 57 (Graded on the API. Search takes `detail=slim` to drop descriptions and comments, and list responses use slim types. Field selection (`fields`) exists only in v4, which is labelled beta (17 of 25). Search has operators, `page_size` up to 250 and a `next` token, and epics have a paginated list, but the v4 migration note says v3 list endpoints return all results at once (14 of 20). Errors are HTTP codes with one-line meanings, 404, 422 and 400 on almost every one of the 143 operations, and no error body is documented (9 of 20). No idempotency keys in v3 (v4 beta takes one on agent sessions). `external_id` fields exist on some entities. The archived MCP source (v0.25.0) sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint on its 78 tools, and the hosted server's annotations were not read (8 of 20). A story needs only a name and a workflow state. One official SDK, `@shortcut/client` for JavaScript and TypeScript (9 of 15).)
- Transparency & trust, Shortcut +12: ONES 62 (Closed service under terms naming The Beautiful ONES Technology PTE. LTD. and Singapore law (15 of 30). The privacy policy of 7 January 2026 deletes business data 30 days after a service ends with no login for 365 days, and honours deletion requests within 30 days, but no DPA or subprocessor list is public (12 of 30). Endpoint version histories record changes, with no deprecation policy (5 of 20). The privacy policy names AWS, Oracle cloud and OpenAI and says data is transferred mostly to the US, China and Singapore, with no subprocessor list or regions (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 6 = 38.); Shortcut 74 (Closed service under terms naming Shortcut Software Company, with an MIT client library and the archived MIT MCP server (15). The privacy policy of 11 July 2025 covers the platform and says inputs and outputs aren't used to train models by default. Retention is 'only for as long as it serves the purpose', the terms give at least 30 days of data access after termination, and the DPA (last updated 23 August 2018) is sent on request, not published (17 of 30). No deprecation policy found. v2, the Projects endpoints and the token query parameter are marked deprecated with no dates (5 of 20). The sub-processor list, updated 12 November 2025, names 33 providers with product, type and country, hosting on AWS in the US (20).)
- Security & auth, ONES +11: ONES 65 (OAuth for MCP clients with per-scope consent, Personal API keys created with chosen scopes and shown once, organisation credentials, token introspection and revocation, all sent as Bearer headers (30). Scope groups allow a read-only grant, and the docs advise revoking unused clients, but writes run without a confirmation step and the consent page preselects every group (12 of 20). Tools return issue, comment and wiki text written by other users plus `search_external_web` results, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). The authorised client list shows each client's grant time and last active time, and on-premises installs document an audit log (8 of 15). security.txt valid until June 2027, and the trust centre lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 without report access or a bug bounty (15 of 20). 30 + 12 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 65.); Shortcut 54 (The hosted MCP server uses the OAuth authorisation code flow with PKCE (S256), dynamic client registration and the scopes read, write, story-write, comment-write and admin. REST tokens are created per user, can be read-only or read-write since 20 January 2026, and the v4 beta lets an admin list and disable workspace tokens. The v3 docs still accept the token as a `token` query parameter, marked deprecated, which costs 10 (20 of 30). Read-only tokens, a read scope, narrow story and comment scopes and the view-only Observer role. No confirmation step for deletes was found (14 of 20). Stories, comments and docs written by other people reach the model, and no injection guidance was found (3 of 15). Story history is readable by API. No workspace audit log of API or MCP calls was found in the pages read (5 of 15). No security.txt (404). A disclosure policy promises acknowledgement within a week, and the security page states SOC 2 Type 2 with the report on request. No bug bounty or public advisories found (12 of 20).)
- Maintenance & community, Shortcut +5: ONES 68 (Latest dated release notes are 7.33.0 on 30 September 2026, 37 days before this check. The registry entry moved to 1.0.3 on 8 October with no release note behind it, so it doesn't set recency (20). Nine dated releases since 8 August, several adding Open API endpoints or MCP capabilities (7.23.0, 7.26.0, 7.27.0, 7.29.0) (20). Closed service with a public changelog and support by email, with no public issue tracker (8 of 15). Verified com.ones/ones namespace in the official MCP registry (15). One official SDK for apps, with package health not checked (5 of 10). 20 + 20 + 8 + 15 + 5 = 68.); Shortcut 73 (The newest release notes are dated 21 October 2026, and `@shortcut/client` 3.5.0 was tagged on 26 October 2026 (30). Release notes on 14 August, 18 September, 16 October and 21 October, and client tags 3.3.0 (11 September), 3.3.1 and 3.4.0 (16 September), 3.4.1 (22 September) and 3.5.0 (20). Closed service with public release notes, a community Slack and a support address. Response times were not checked (9 of 15). The official client is current, but the official MCP registry has only third-party Shortcut servers (com.mcparmory/shortcut, io.github.stayce/shortcut-mcp) (8 of 15). The client repository's newest commit is of 3 November 2026 under MIT, with CI workflows. The MCP server repository is archived at v0.25.0 (23 June 2026) with a notice that development moved to the hosted server (6 of 10).)