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Head to head · Tasks create · October 2026 research run

Shortcut vs Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Shortcut's 60.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do tasks create.

ShortcutShortcut Software Company · HTTP API C60.2/100#411 of 722 Teamwork.comTeamwork Crew Limited · HTTP API B65.9/100#251 of 722

Which one, for what

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

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

Teamwork.com B

Good for Agencies and services firms already on Teamwork.com that want an assistant to create and update tasks, log time, read workload and budgets, and answer Desk tickets.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 73 against 64
  • Agent ergonomics, 68 against 57
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 73
  • Transparency & trust, 80 against 73

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

OAuth scopes are per product only (projects, desk, spaces, chat), and the token from the app login flow is described as permanent

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runShortcutTeamwork.comEdge
Reliability16%206473Teamwork.com +9
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27572Shortcut +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.25768Teamwork.com +11
Security & auth14%17.55458Teamwork.com +4
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87388Teamwork.com +15
Transparency & trust7%8.87380Teamwork.com +7
Negative events≤1500
Total60.2 · C65.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactShortcutTeamwork.com
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorShortcut Software CompanyTeamwork Crew Limited
Hosted endpointhttps://api.app.shortcut.comhttps://mcp.ai.teamwork.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MITProprietary service under Teamwork.com's terms of service. The MCP server on GitHub is MIT
Tools exposednone225
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-09-222026-10-06
Terms last updated2025-09-18no date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-07-112024-08-19
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity142 stars, 103k npm/wk26 stars

Verdicts

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.

Teamwork.com

The official MCP server is MIT licensed, released almost daily, and has typed tools with annotations, profile endpoints and no delete tools on the shipped servers. OAuth scopes stop at product level, access tokens are permanent, and no SLA, API changelog or prompt-injection guidance was found in the reviewed documentation.

Before you call either

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.

Teamwork.com

  1. Use a profile endpoint such as https://mcp.ai.teamwork.com/project-manager. The base URL loads every tool across Projects, Desk, Spaces and Chat.
  2. Ask a site administrator to enable MCP under Settings, AI before connecting.
  3. Build REST URLs from installation.apiEndPoint in the token response. Sites live at {site}.teamwork.com (US) or {site}.eu.teamwork.com (EU).
  4. Stay under 150 requests a minute on Free, Basics and Accelerate. The limit is shared by the whole site. On 429, wait until X-Rate-Limit-Reset.
  5. Pass verbose=false to list_* tools to get ids and names only, and use twprojects-create_tasks for many tasks in one call.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Shortcut or Teamwork.com?

Teamwork.com scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Shortcut's 60.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Do Shortcut and Teamwork.com need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Shortcut and Teamwork.com without installing anything?

Yes. Shortcut has a hosted endpoint at https://api.app.shortcut.com and Teamwork.com at https://mcp.ai.teamwork.com.

Other comparisons with Shortcut or Teamwork.com

Machine-readable

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