Fundamental Research Labs

Fundamental Research Labs (formerly Altera) is an applied AI research company building autonomous, collaborative AI agents, founded by researchers from MIT EECS, the Stanford NLP Group, Google X, and Citadel and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Prosus. Its flagship product, Shortcut, is an AI analyst for Excel that turns natural-language prompts into full spreadsheet models — LBOs, DCFs, three-statement models, waterfalls — and ships a web app, desktop app, Excel and Google Sheets plugins, a ShortcutXL terminal agent (CLI), and a Platform API. The Shortcut Platform API lets teams submit spreadsheet-automation jobs, poll status, download generated workbooks, upload context files, list agent skills, and export organization usage data programmatically using API-key bearer authentication.

Fundamental Research Labs publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: Authentication API, Spreadsheets API, and Usage API. Tagged areas include Company, Ai, Artificial Intelligence, Spreadsheets, and Excel.

The Fundamental Research Labs catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification.

Fundamental Research Labs’ developer surface includes documentation, API reference, getting-started guide, pricing, signup flow, engineering blog, support, and 25 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
63.7/100 strong ▬ flat Agent 78/100 agent native Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-23 · rubric v0.5
AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try
3 APIs 1 MCP Servers
CompanyAiArtificial IntelligenceSpreadsheetsExcelFinancial ModelingAgentsAutomationProductivityData Analysis

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-23 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 63.7/100 · strong
Contract Quality 14.2 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 14.8 / 20
Commercial Clarity 16.8 / 20
Operational Transparency 7.9 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 10.0 / 10
Agent readiness — 78/100 · agent native
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 15 / 15
MCP Server 12 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 6 / 6
Agent Skills 5 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/fundamental-research-labs: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Fundamental Research Labs Authentication API

API key authentication and verification

Fundamental Research Labs Spreadsheets API

Spreadsheet processing and automation endpoints

Fundamental Research Labs Usage API

Export team usage metrics for reporting, finance, and internal analytics. Usage Metrics in Shortcut provides a prefilled request with your team_id; use this reference to customi...

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

fundamental-research-labs-mcp.yml

MCP SERVER

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Fundamental Research Labs Plans

4 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Fundamental Research Labs Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Fundamental Research Labs Webhooks

ASYNCAPI

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Fundamental Research Labs Authentication

apiKey/http · 2 schemes

SECURITY

Fundamental Research Labs Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Fundamental Research Labs Agentic Access

10 operations · 3 acting

10 operations · 3 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal
DeveloperPortal
 GettingStarted
GettingStarted
 SignUp
SignUp

Documentation 3

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation
 APIReference
APIReference
 OpenAPI
OpenAPI

Agent Surfaces 4

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

MCPServer
MCPServer
 LLMsTxt
LLMsTxt
 AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess
 AgentSkill
AgentSkill

Design & Contract 6

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Conformance
Conformance
 ErrorCatalog
ErrorCatalog
 Lifecycle
Lifecycle
 Conventions
Conventions
 DataModel
DataModel
 Webhooks
Webhooks

Build 3

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 Packages
Packages
 CLI
CLI

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Compliance
Compliance
 Authentication
Authentication
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support
Support
 ChangeLog
ChangeLog
 RateLimits
RateLimits

Commercial 4

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing
Pricing
 PrivacyPolicy
PrivacyPolicy
 TermsOfService
TermsOfService
 Plans
Plans

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website
Website
 Blog
Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Overlay
Overlay

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: fundamental-research-labs
name: Fundamental Research Labs
description: Fundamental Research Labs (formerly Altera) is an applied AI research company building autonomous, collaborative
  AI agents, founded by researchers from MIT EECS, the Stanford NLP Group, Google X, and Citadel and backed by Andreessen
  Horowitz and Prosus. Its flagship product, Shortcut, is an AI analyst for Excel that turns natural-language prompts into
  full spreadsheet models — LBOs, DCFs, three-statement models, waterfalls — and ships a web app, desktop app, Excel and Google
  Sheets plugins, a ShortcutXL terminal agent (CLI), and a Platform API. The Shortcut Platform API lets teams submit spreadsheet-automation
  jobs, poll status, download generated workbooks, upload context files, list agent skills, and export organization usage
  data programmatically using API-key bearer authentication.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/fundamental-research-labs/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- prosus-ventures
- andreessen-horowitz
x-tier: enriched
x-tier-reason: has-public-api
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
specificationVersion: '0.20'
image: https://shortcut.ai/og-image.png
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-19'
tags:
- Company
- Ai
- Artificial Intelligence
- Spreadsheets
- Excel
- Financial Modeling
- Agents
- Automation
- Productivity
- Data Analysis
apis:
- aid: fundamental-research-labs:fundamental-research-labs-authentication-api
  name: Fundamental Research Labs Authentication API
  description: API key authentication and verification
  humanURL: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  baseURL: https://api.shortcut.ai
  tags:
  - Authentication
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/fundamental-research-labs-authentication-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  - type: InteractiveDocumentation
    url: https://api.shortcut.ai/api/spreadsheets/docs
- aid: fundamental-research-labs:fundamental-research-labs-spreadsheets-api
  name: Fundamental Research Labs Spreadsheets API
  description: Spreadsheet processing and automation endpoints
  humanURL: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  baseURL: https://api.shortcut.ai
  tags:
  - Spreadsheets
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/fundamental-research-labs-spreadsheets-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  - type: InteractiveDocumentation
    url: https://api.shortcut.ai/api/spreadsheets/docs
- aid: fundamental-research-labs:fundamental-research-labs-usage-api
  name: Fundamental Research Labs Usage API
  description: Export team usage metrics for reporting, finance, and internal analytics. Usage Metrics in Shortcut provides
    a prefilled request with your team_id; use this reference to customize date range, format, or grouping.
  humanURL: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  baseURL: https://api.shortcut.ai
  tags:
  - Usage
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/fundamental-research-labs-usage-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
  - type: InteractiveDocumentation
    url: https://api.shortcut.ai/api/spreadsheets/docs
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
common:
- type: Website
  url: https://fundamentalresearchlabs.ai
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://shortcut.ai/docs
- type: Documentation
  url: https://shortcut.ai/docs
- type: APIReference
  url: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://shortcut.ai/docs/platform-api
- type: Pricing
  url: https://shortcut.ai/pricing
- type: SignUp
  url: https://shortcut.ai/shortcut
- type: Blog
  url: https://shortcut.ai/blog
- type: Support
  url: https://shortcut.ai/support
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://shortcut.ai/privacy/policy
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://shortcut.ai/terms
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/fundamental-research-labs
- type: Compliance
  url: https://shortcut.ai/pricing
- type: OpenAPI
  url: openapi/fundamental-research-labs-openapi-original.json
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/fundamental-research-labs-authentication.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/fundamental-research-labs-packages.yml
- type: CLI
  url: cli/fundamental-research-labs-cli.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/fundamental-research-labs-mcp.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/fundamental-research-labs-llms.txt
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/fundamental-research-labs-shortcut-overlay.yaml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/fundamental-research-labs-conformance.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/fundamental-research-labs-problem-types.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/fundamental-research-labs-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/fundamental-research-labs-conventions.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/fundamental-research-labs-data-model.yml
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/fundamental-research-labs-webhooks.yml
- type: ChangeLog
  url: changelog/fundamental-research-labs-changelog.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/fundamental-research-labs-rate-limits.yml
- type: Plans
  url: plans/fundamental-research-labs-plans.yml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/fundamental-research-labs-agentic-access.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/fundamental-research-labs-domain-security.yml
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence