# Redmine vs Shortcut

> Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) to Redmine's 50.2 (D) for issues and tasks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) on agent readiness against Redmine's 50.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Redmine leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do issues and tasks.

- Redmine: grade D, 50.2/100, rank #777 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/redmine.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/redmine.json
- Shortcut: grade C, 60.2/100, rank #526 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shortcut.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json
- Best project and task management tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/project-management/index.md
- All 135 projects comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/project-management/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Redmine (D)

Good for: Teams that already run Redmine or want a free, self-hosted tracker with issues, time entries and wikis under their own control.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: No OpenAPI document or other machine-readable contract was found in the wiki or the source repository

### 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:
- Schema & documentation, 75 against 32
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 51
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 47

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Redmine loses 4 points for them

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Redmine | Shortcut | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 69 | 64 | Redmine +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 32 | 75 | Shortcut +43 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 57 | Shortcut +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 51 | 54 | Shortcut +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Redmine +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 73 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 73 | Shortcut +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **50.2 · D** | **60.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Redmine | Shortcut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Redmine project | Shortcut Software Company |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.app.shortcut.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | GPL-2.0-or-later | Proprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-09-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-07-11 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 142 stars, 103k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Redmine.** Redmine's REST API covers issues, projects, time entries and 20 other resources, and versions 6.1 and later add OAuth 2 with one scope per permission. The software is free under the GPL. No OpenAPI document exists, most errors return a bare status code, and 24 security advisories were published in twelve months, two rated critical.

**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

### Redmine

1. Ask an administrator to tick Enable REST API under Administration, Settings, API. It is off by default and every call fails until then
2. Send the key in the `X-Redmine-API-Key` header, never as the `key` query parameter, and set `Content-Type: application/json` on every POST and PUT
3. Add `status_id=*` to issue lists. The default returns open issues only, 25 a page with a maximum of 100
4. Comment on an issue by sending `notes` in a PUT to `/issues/<id>.json`. There is no separate comment endpoint
5. A DELETE on a project through the API skips the confirmation the web page asks for, so run the agent as a non-administrator user

### 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, Redmine or Shortcut?

Shortcut scores 60.2 (C) on agent readiness against Redmine's 50.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Redmine leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Do Redmine and Shortcut need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Redmine and Shortcut without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Redmine. Shortcut has a hosted endpoint at https://api.app.shortcut.com.

### Are Redmine and Shortcut open source?

Redmine is open source (GPL-2.0-or-later). No open-source release is listed for Shortcut.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-shortcut.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "redmine", "b": "shortcut"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare redmine shortcut`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/redmine.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json

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- [Plane vs Redmine](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-redmine.md)
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- [Redmine vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/redmine-vs-youtrack.md)
- [Roma vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/roma-vs-shortcut.md)
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- [Shortcut vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.md)
- [Shortcut vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-todoist.md)
- [Shortcut vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-trello.md)
- [Shortcut vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-wrike.md)
- [Shortcut vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-youtrack.md)