Project management · checked 2026-10-19

Can I vibecode Shortcut?

KINDA· weekend project

Stories on a kanban board with workflow states, epics, iterations and a backlog are a well-trodden build: a SQLite database and a drag-and-drop board take one sitting for a single person. The weekend goes on what pulls a team in: live multi-user boards, the GitHub link that moves stories as branches and pull requests change, Slack and Figma hooks, roadmaps and objectives, and charts such as cycle time and cumulative flow. For you and two friends a self-hosted board is enough; for a team that lives in GitHub, the integration decides it.

$10/moprice per seat

$120you'd save a year

weekendbuild time

—people replaced it

Before you start

What you need on hand.

DifficultyIntermediate · Some system setup or keys.

TimeA weekend; the board is quick, the GitHub webhook and reports take longer

Claude Code, Codex or CursorAny of them can run the prompt.
Python 3.12Everything installs with pip into a virtual environment.
A public address for the webhookA tunnel or a small VPS with HTTPS so GitHub can reach the app.
A GitHub repository you adminNeeded to add the webhook and its secret.
Your Shortcut CSV exportOptional; use Export as CSV on the workspace dashboard.

Before you buildShortcut Free covers up to 10 users with one workflow. A team under that size may not need to pay for anything.

1. Install one agent: Claude Code, Codex, Cursor.
2. Make an empty folder and open it in the agent.
3. Paste the prompt below, press enter, and answer its questions as it builds.

The prompt

Build me a small story tracker for a software team to replace Shortcut. Requirements:

- Python 3.12 with FastAPI, Jinja2, HTMX and SortableJS: `uvicorn app:app` serves
http://localhost:4810. Settings go in .env.
- Storage: SQLite through SQLModel in ./data/tracker.db with stories (title, Markdown description,
type, estimate, state, owner, epic, iteration, labels), epics, iterations (start and end dates),
editable workflow states, comments, and an activity log. Every state change stores a timestamp.
- Board: a kanban board with drag-and-drop between columns, a work-in-progress limit per column that
rejects a drop with a clear message, filters by owner, epic, iteration and label, and a backlog list
you can reorder by dragging.
- Epics and iterations: an epic page with progress by points and by story count; an iteration page
with a burndown chart (Chart.js) and a button that moves unfinished stories to the next iteration.
- Reports: velocity per iteration, median and 85th-percentile cycle and lead time for the last 90
days, and a cumulative flow diagram, all computed from the activity log.
- GitHub: POST /webhooks/github verifies X-Hub-Signature-256 with GITHUB_WEBHOOK_SECRET, reads story
ids like sc-123 from branch names, moves a story to In Progress on push, In Review when a pull
request opens and Done when it merges, and links the PR on the story.
- Users: up to 10 accounts with email and password (`argon2-cffi`) and the roles owner, member and
observer (read only). Import Shortcut's stories CSV (name, type, state, epic, iteration, labels,
estimate, created_at, started_at, completed_at) and export everything back to CSV.
- No telemetry, local-first; the only outbound call is an optional Slack incoming webhook for state changes.
- Out of scope: roadmaps, objectives, docs, automations, Figma, SSO, AI agents.
- README: exposing the webhook through a tunnel and how to export stories from Shortcut.

Opens your agent with the prompt filled in, you press enter. Or copy it and paste it into an empty folder.

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Then keep going

Next prompts, same folder.

The first prompt builds the core. Run these one at a time in the same folder to grow it into your own Shortcut.

Add story templates to the tracker in this folder. Requirements:

- A template has a name, story type, default labels, default state and a Markdown body with
  headings (for example Steps to reproduce and Expected result).
- The New story form offers a template picker and fills the form without saving.
- Admins manage templates on a settings page.
- Update the README.

Add a Slack slash command to the tracker in this folder. Requirements:

- `/story Fix login redirect @ann #bug` creates a story in the backlog through a signed request
  (verify the Slack signing secret) and replies with its id and link.
- Map Slack users to tracker users by email; unknown users create unassigned stories.
- Reject requests older than 5 minutes.
- Update the README with the Slack app setup.

Add simple automations to the tracker in this folder. Requirements:

- When an iteration ends, a nightly job moves unfinished stories to the next iteration and
  creates the following iteration with the same length.
- When every story in an epic is done, mark the epic done and post to the Slack webhook.
- Log each automatic action in the activity log with the actor "automation".
- Update the README.

What you lose

GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket sync that moves stories as branches and pull requests change
Roadmaps, objectives and key results, and docs linked to stories
Reports for cycle time, lead time and cumulative flow built from real history
Slack, Figma, Sentry and Zendesk integrations, an API and webhooks
AI agent coordination, the MCP server and SSO

Why people still pay

Engineering teams that live in GitHub pay for a board that follows their branches and pull requests with little ceremony, with epics, iterations and reports built in, at a lower price than Jira. Moving a team's history, habits and integrations is the real cost of leaving.

Moatcollaboration integrations switching costs

Do the math

Shortcut or your own copy?

Seats

Over

Your usage

Count my time12h ×$/h

Shortcut, 1 yr$120

Your own copy, 1 yr$46running + build session

You keep$74pays for itself in 2 months

Estimate · Free on your own machine, or a $5 VPS for a team; there are no other running costs. The build is token usage on your agent plan. For comparison, a 5-person team on Shortcut Team costs $50 a month billed monthly.

Leaving Shortcut

Take your data, then cancel.

1 · Take your data out of Shortcut

1To export every story in a workspace as CSV, use the export option on the Organization and Workspace dashboard.
2For one epic, iteration or label, use Export as CSV at the top right of the Stories Table; for a filtered Space, use Export in its dropdown.
3The CSV includes story id, name, type, owners, description, state, estimate, dates, labels, tasks, epic, iteration, team, workflow and custom fields. Excel can garble long descriptions; Google Sheets copes better.
4The fields list stories, epics and objectives only, so copy Docs and attachments out separately.

2 · Cancel Shortcut

1Only an Owner of the Organization can pause or cancel: disable the Organization from the Manage Organization and Workspaces page.
2Disabling suspends the account but keeps your payment information; contact support to have it removed.
3To keep using Shortcut for free with 10 or fewer users, change the plan to Free in Settings > Workspace Settings > Billing; it takes effect at the start of the next billing cycle.
4Shortcut does not give pro-rated refunds for cancelled subscriptions.

The plan does not drop to Free by itself when your user count falls to 10, so move it manually.
Legacy plans lose their old pricing and entitlements if you pause or cancel.
Export stories before you downgrade: Free allows one workflow and one team, so extra workflows and teams may not fit.
Update GitHub webhooks and branch-naming habits only after the new tool is live, so story links keep resolving until you switch.

Checked 2026-10-19 against Shortcut's docs: 1, 2, 3

The escape hatch

Don't feel like building it? These are already free.

PlaneOpen sourceAGPL project management with issues, cycles, modules and views, pitched as an open-source Jira and Linear alternative; self-host or use the cloud.★ 61k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗TaigaOpen sourceMPL-2.0 agile tool with kanban and scrum boards, epics and sprints; the backend repo is shown here and the frontend lives in a separate repository.★ 859 · active Sep 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗KanboardOpen sourceMIT kanban board in PHP with swimlanes, WIP limits and plugins; runs on a small server with SQLite.★ 9.9k · active Oct 2026 · docker to self-host
WebVisit ↗

All 4 free alternatives to Shortcut ›

The numbers

Shortcut pricing

Plan	Monthly	Annual, per month	What you get
Free	$0	$0	Up to 10 users, 1 team, 1 workspace, 1 workflow, 5 GB storage. Kanban boards, backlog, iterations, roadmap, basic reports, docs, GitHub, Slack and Figma integrations.
Team	$10	$8.50	Unlimited users, up to 5 teams and 5 workflows, 250 GB storage. Adds the full reports suite, work-in-progress limits, automations, all integrations and up to 5 read-only users per paid seat.
Business	$16	$12	Unlimited teams, workflows and workspaces. Adds objectives and key results, advanced custom fields, advanced reports and multiple workspaces.
Enterprise	custom	—	Business plus volume discounts, premier support SLAs, SSO and SCIM, custom terms, a dedicated Slack channel and onboarding; HIPAA compliance on request.

Free tier: 10 users, one team, one workflow and 5 GB of storage; no work-in-progress limits or automations.
Billing: Per user per month, monthly or yearly. On yearly Team and Business plans billing is metered: you are charged per user, per month during the yearly cycle. No pro-rated refunds when you cancel.
Hidden costs: Going past 10 users forces a paid plan. The plan is not switched back to Free automatically when headcount drops; an owner must change it, effective at the next billing cycle. Objectives and key results, advanced custom fields and extra workspaces are Business only, and SAML SSO is a paid add-on on Business and included only on Enterprise.
Source: www.shortcut.com

Also on the list

Linear$10/mo · Project managementKINDA

Jira$7.91/mo · Project managementKINDA

Plane$8/mo · Project managementKINDA

Questions

Shortcut, briefly

Not answered here? Tell us and we'll add it.

Ask a question ›

Free works for up to 10 users with one team and one workflow: kanban boards, roadmap, iterations, reports and docs, with GitHub, Slack and Figma integrations.

Kinda. The core is a weekend build with the prompt on this page, but real gaps remain: GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket sync that moves stories as branches and pull requests change, Roadmaps, objectives and key results, and docs linked to stories.

About $10 a month on the Team plan per seat, $120 a year (checked 2026-10-19).

GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket sync that moves stories as branches and pull requests change; Roadmaps, objectives and key results, and docs linked to stories; Reports for cycle time, lead time and cumulative flow built from real history; Slack, Figma, Sentry and Zendesk integrations, an API and webhooks; AI agent coordination, the MCP server and SSO. If any of those matter to you, keep paying.