How to Connect Shortcut to Cursor via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Shortcut, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Shortcut + Cursor

Let your AI work in Shortcut: search stories with Shortcut's search operators, read stories with tasks, comments and history, epics, iterations, objectives, teams, workflows and labels, and create, update and comment on stories after you confirm. Personal API token.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

SHORTCUT_API_TOKEN

Step 1 — Get credentials

1. In Shortcut, click your avatar and open Settings → Your Account → API Tokens (https://app.shortcut.com/settings/account/api-tokens).
2. Enter a name such as AnythingMCP and click Generate Token. Shortcut shows the token only once.
3. Paste it into SHORTCUT_API_TOKEN and install the connector. It is sent as the Shortcut-Token header and only to Shortcut.
4. Check the setup with shortcut_get_current_member: it shows who you are, your mention name and the workspace.

The token acts as you: in the workspace it was created in, with your permissions. Stories and comments the AI writes appear under your name. If you work in several Shortcut workspaces, create one token per workspace.

Writes only after your yes: shortcut_create_story, shortcut_update_story and shortcut_add_story_comment change the workspace at once and notify followers. The AI shows you the story, the fields or the comment text first and waits for a clear yes. shortcut_delete_story is installed switched off: a deleted story cannot be restored, and archiving it with shortcut_update_story is the safer choice.

Search the way Shortcut does: shortcut_search_stories and shortcut_search_epics take Shortcut's search operators. You ask in plain words and the AI builds the query:

• owner:jane, requester:jane, team:"Mobile", epic:"Checkout redesign", iteration:"Sprint 12", label:"customer", state:"In Progress", type:bug, estimate:3.
• is:started, is:done, is:blocked, is:overdue, has:owner, has:deadline, has:comment.
• Dates: created:2026-10-01..2026-10-15, updated:today, completed:yesterday, due:*..2026-10-31.
• An exclamation mark in front of an operator excludes it, for example owner:jane is:started !is:archived type:bug.

What it reads: stories with description, tasks, comments, links and their full change history (who moved what, and when), epics with their comments, iterations, objectives, teams, workflows with their states, labels, projects and members. To move a story the AI sets its workflow state, which it looks up first.

Paging and limits: searches return 25 results by default and up to 250 per page. Only the first 1000 matches can be paged through, so the AI narrows the query instead. 200 requests per minute per token.

Common errors: 401: the token is wrong or was deleted; generate a new one. 404: the id does not exist in this workspace. 400 or 422: a value is not accepted, for example a workflow state from another workflow; Shortcut names it in the message.

Not covered: deleting epics, iterations, labels or comments, Docs, files and attachments, editing custom fields, story templates, webhooks, tasks and story links.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Cursor

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Add this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "url": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

1. Create an MCP API key in AnythingMCP under MCP Servers → your server → API keys, and paste it in place of YOUR_MCP_API_KEY.
2. Save the file and restart Cursor.
3. Open Cursor → Settings → MCP and check that anythingmcp is listed and connected.
4. Start chatting: the agent can now call the Shortcut tools.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "What is on my plate right now? List my started stories that are not done yet, with their epic and iteration."
• "Which bugs were completed in Sprint 12, and which ones are still open?"
• "Show me the history of story 4521: who moved it to Ready for Review, and when?"
• "Create a bug story 'Checkout fails with expired card' for the Payments team, state Unstarted, owner Jane. Show me the story before you create it."
• "Comment on story 4521 that the fix is on staging, and move it to Ready for Review. Confirm with me first."

FAQ

Does Cursor support custom MCP servers on the free tier? Yes, MCP is available on Hobby, Pro and Business plans.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to Claude
• Connect to ChatGPT