Trello

Use Cases

• Daily board summary: list cards per list with due dates
• Card triage: AI categorizes and labels incoming cards
• Sprint management: move cards between lists based on status updates
• Quick capture: create cards from chat messages or emails
• Project reporting: aggregate card counts and statuses across boards
• Automated archiving: archive completed cards older than N days

Tips

• Store credentials as env vars: `export TRELLO_API_KEY=xxx TRELLO_TOKEN=yyy`
• Use `jq` for parsing — every API response is JSON: `curl ... | jq '.[].name'`
• Get your board ID first: `curl 'https://api.trello.com/1/members/me/boards?key=K&token=T' | jq '.[].id'`
• Combine with OpenClaw cron for daily board summaries: cards per list, overdue items
• Use labels for priority/category — they're easy to filter in API calls
• Move cards between lists with PUT: `curl -X PUT 'https://api.trello.com/1/cards/{id}?idList={listId}&key=K&token=T'`
• Add comments to cards for audit trails: great for AI-driven triage logging
• Use webhooks for real-time card updates instead of polling

Known Issues & Gotchas

• Requires both TRELLO_API_KEY and TRELLO_TOKEN — one without the other won't work
• Token generation requires OAuth flow in a browser — can't be fully automated
• Trello free tier limits to 10 boards — paid plans needed for more
• Card IDs are not human-readable — you need to list cards first to get IDs for updates
• Archiving a card is not deleting — archived cards still exist and count toward limits
• Webhook setup for real-time updates requires a publicly accessible callback URL
• Rate limit: 300 requests per 10 seconds per token — generous but can be hit in tight loops
• Atlassian accounts are separate from legacy Trello accounts — make sure you're using the right one

Alternatives

• Notion (API)
• GitHub Projects
• Linear
• Things 3 (things-mac)
• Jira

Community Feedback

You can use the API to retrieve information from your boards, cards, and members, or create, update, and delete content using a script or other programming language.

— Atlassian Developer Docs

Manage Trello boards, cards, and lists directly from Claude Code. Automate task tracking and project management using the Trello REST API and AI.

— MCP Market

Manage Trello boards, lists, and cards via the Trello REST API. Use when: user asks to create/move/list Trello cards, check board status, or manage project workflows.

— LobeHub Skills

Automate That Trello Board With Python. Once you have API access, it's time to write code. Trello's REST API is clean and well-documented — easy to automate.

— Medium (Mike Wolfe)

Configuration Examples

Get API credentials

# 1. Get your API Key:
#    Visit https://trello.com/power-ups/admin → New → copy API Key

# 2. Generate a Token:
#    Visit https://trello.com/1/authorize?expiration=never&scope=read,write&response_type=token&key=YOUR_KEY
#    Click Allow → copy the token

# 3. Set env vars
export TRELLO_API_KEY="your-api-key"
export TRELLO_TOKEN="your-token"

Common board operations

KEY=$TRELLO_API_KEY
TOK=$TRELLO_TOKEN
BASE="https://api.trello.com/1"

# List your boards
curl -s "$BASE/members/me/boards?key=$KEY&token=$TOK" | jq '.[].name'

# Get lists on a board
curl -s "$BASE/boards/{boardId}/lists?key=$KEY&token=$TOK" | jq '.[].name'

# Get cards in a list
curl -s "$BASE/lists/{listId}/cards?key=$KEY&token=$TOK" | jq '.[] | {name, due}'

Create and manage cards

# Create a card
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/cards?key=$KEY&token=$TOK" \
  -d 'idList={listId}' \
  -d 'name=New Feature Request' \
  -d 'desc=Description here' \
  -d 'due=2026-04-01' | jq .id

# Move a card to another list
curl -s -X PUT "$BASE/cards/{cardId}?key=$KEY&token=$TOK&idList={newListId}"

# Add a comment
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/cards/{cardId}/actions/comments?key=$KEY&token=$TOK" \
  -d 'text=AI triage: This looks like a P1 bug'

Installation

# Requires TRELLO_API_KEY + TRELLO_TOKEN env vars