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MCP or API – which and when?

Both bring teamspace data to the outside, but they solve different problems. The decision aid – including which edition includes what.

teamspace has two ways out to the outside world: the REST API and the MCP server. Both reach the same data, but they address completely different questions. Mix them up and you spend weeks building something you never needed.

The shortest way to tell them apart: the API is for software that always does the same thing. MCP is for questions you don’t know in advance.

The difference in a table

MCPREST API
Who calls it?An AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor …)A program someone has written
Who uses it?Business users, in plain languageDevelopers, in code
When is it worth it?Questions that are different every timeWorkflows that run the same every day
EffortClick a configuration together, connect a clientDevelopment, testing, operation, maintenance
ResultAn answer, an analysis, a new recordA permanent integration
PermissionsThose of the logged-in userThose of the technical access
Included inall editionsfrom the enterprise edition upwards

Choose MCP when …

  • you want to ask rather than program: “Which projects are over budget?”
  • the questions are different every time and no report is worth building for them.
  • you need the result once, not every morning at seven.
  • you work exploratively – one answer leads to the next question.
  • the thing needs to stand up today, not in three weeks.
  • you are on office or projectfacts and the API is therefore not available to you at all.

Choose the API when …

  • a workflow runs unattended and repeatedly – at night, every hour, on every new record.
  • the result has to be exactly reproducible: the same input, guaranteed to give the same output.
  • another system is being connected permanently – a BI tool, accounting, a shop.
  • large volumes of data are moved in one go.
  • the access must not hang on a person but on the system.

The endpoints, authentication and schemas are covered in the API topic.

The edition question

In practice, the most common reason to opt for MCP is simply availability:

MCP is included in all editions – office, enterprise and projectfacts. The plain REST API, by contrast, is available only from the enterprise edition upwards.

For many office customers, MCP is therefore the first way to connect teamspace to other tools at all. And for some tasks that used to require the API and a developer, a tailored MCP access and a well-put question are enough today.

Both together is often the answer

The two do not rule each other out, and in practice they complement each other cleanly:

  • The API keeps the nightly handover to accounting running – reliably, unattended, always the same.
  • MCP answers the afternoon question of why the figures from that handover look odd.

Another proven route is to start with MCP: once it turns out that a particular question is asked every week and the answer always comes about the same way, that is the moment to solidify it as an API integration. MCP is then the cheap way to find out what is worth building.

What MCP explicitly is not

  • No substitute for reports. If the same analysis is needed regularly, a report in teamspace is faster, cheaper and the same for everyone.
  • No guarantee of word-for-word consistency. An assistant phrases its answer afresh each time. For figures that have to be exact and repeatable, use a report or the API.
  • No technical system access. An MCP access always hangs on a person and their permissions – see How MCP works in teamspace.