# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-teamwork.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: 2026-10-08

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.

- Shortcut: grade C, 60.2/100, rank #411 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shortcut.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shortcut.json
- Teamwork.com: grade B, 65.9/100, rank #251 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/teamwork.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/teamwork.json

## 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.

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

| Category | Weight | Shortcut | Teamwork.com | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 64 | 73 | Teamwork.com +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 72 | Shortcut +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 68 | Teamwork.com +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 58 | Teamwork.com +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 88 | Teamwork.com +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 80 | Teamwork.com +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.2 · C** | **65.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Shortcut | Teamwork.com |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Shortcut Software Company | Teamwork Crew Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.app.shortcut.com` | `https://mcp.ai.teamwork.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy), stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Shortcut's terms of service. The JavaScript client and the archived MCP server on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Teamwork.com's terms of service. The MCP server on GitHub is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 225 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-22 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-18 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-07-11 | 2024-08-19 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 142 stars, 103k npm/wk | 26 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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Shortcut or Teamwork.com

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- [Shortcut vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-trello.md)
- [Shortcut vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shortcut-vs-wrike.md)
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