Welcome to the MacStories Shortcuts Archive, the official repository for shortcuts created by Federico Viticci and the MacStories team.
Since the original release of Workflow in 2014, we’ve created hundreds of automations to help readers use their iOS devices more efficiently. The goal of this archive is to offer a complete catalogue of our old workflows as well as new custom shortcuts for Apple’s Shortcuts app.
Each shortcut in this archive has been created, updated, and tested by Federico and the MacStories team. Shortcuts are organized in categories, and you can jump directly to a specific category by using one of the section links below.
For more details on downloading and using shortcuts, see this section below.
Want even more exclusive shortcuts? Check out Club MacStories.
Archive Details
Total number of shortcuts in archive: 229
Last update: Dec 17, 2020
Jump to section:
- Apple TV
- App Store
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Evernote
- Files
- Health
- Home
- JavaScript
- Mac
- Markdown
- Media
- Music
- Notes
- Photos
- Podcasts
- Task Management
- Text
- Time Tracking
- Weather
- Web
- Other
Apple TV
Wake Apple TV
Wake an Apple TV on the local network and show the remote control for it on an iOS device. Best used as a widget for fast activation.
Apple TV+ Launcher
Launch different sections of the Apple TV+ service in Apple’s TV app. The shortcut supports the Apple TV+ front page and individual shows, and can be customized to launch more shows or movies.
Wake TV and Set Lights
Wake up an Apple TV on the local network and, if it’s past sunset, dim the lights in the room.
Check if the current time is after predicted sunset time for today.
Add a HomeKit scene that will dim the lights.
App Store
Scan iTunes Gift Card
Scan an iTunes gift card, extract its text, and open the App Store to redeem the associated promo code. You can import an image of a gift card from the clipboard or take a new picture. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Copy App Link
Search for an app on the App Store, then copy its link to the system clipboard.
Save App Store Screenshots
Search the App Store for an app and save screenshots from the product page to the Photos app.
Save App to Trello
Save an app from the App Store as a card in Trello. The app’s icon, title, and other metadata are used to compose a rich card in Trello.
App Store Story as Safari Reader Article
Read an App Store story (from the ‘Today’ tab) as a text-only webpage, cleaned up by Safari Reader. To run the shortcut, copy a link to an editorial story from the App Store first.
App Release Notes
Copy the release notes for the latest version of an app shared from the App Store. By default, the shortcut searches the U.S. App Store, but you can change the country to your locale.
Redeem iTunes Code
Redeem an iTunes code contained in the system clipboard. The shortcut will prompt you to pick a code you previously copied before launching the App Store’s redemption page, where the code will be already filled in.
Save App Store Icon
Search the App Store for an app and save its icon to the Photos app.
Calendar
Calendar Locations
Get a list of upcoming calendar events that contain locations.
Travel Time to Next Calendar Event
Calculate travel time to get to the next calendar event that has an address attached to it. The shortcut can be configured for different transportation methods and can be invoked from Siri or the widget.
Days Until…
Calculate how many days are left until a date you can type in natural language. The shortcut was designed in English, but can be adapted to other languages as well.
Upcoming Events
View your next five calendar events in a list. The selected event will be opened in the system Calendar app. This shortcut can be used from the widget.
Create Calendar Event from Template
Create a new calendar event choosing from a list of templates. Templates are represented by a Dictionary action at the beginning of the shortcut and they support customization for calendar name, location, duration, notes, alert time, and the all-day setting. The shortcut will only ask to confirm the event’s title and start date. This shortcut was originally created for members of Club MacStories.
Fantastical Schedule (Multi-Platform)
View Fantastical’s schedule for today using native app shortcuts for the iPhone and iPad versions of the app. The shortcut doesn’t require any user interaction to choose platforms.
Time Until Important Event Location
Calculate how much time you have until an important event comes up. If you specify a location to filter important events, driving time to the selected address is also calculated by the shortcut.
Contacts
WhatsApp Launcher
Open a WhatsApp conversation for a selected contact. The shortcut needs to be configured for contacts that have a Country in their contact card’s Address field; the country and its phone prefix (country code) have to be added in a list at the beginning of the shortcut.
Multilingual iMessage Dictation
Dictate an iMessage to a friend from a widget. The dictation language is set automatically based on the recipient’s address stored in their contact card. iMessages are sent in the background, but you’ll be asked to confirm the message before sending it.
Quick Contact
Create a new contact from the Shortcuts app or Siri. The new contact is created using the Name, Email Address, Company, and Notes field.
This shortcut requires the app Quickness to be installed.
Share Song with Contact
Add the currently playing song to an Apple Music playlist and tell one of your favorite contacts about the addition by sending them an iMessage.
Invert Names
Given a list of last and first names separated by a comma, the shortcut inverts their position and returns a plain text list of first names followed by last names.
Message Last Photo
Quickly send the last photo you’ve taken on your device to a contact over iMessage. The shortcut supports both photos and screenshots, but you can add filters to remove one of the two media types.
Mail Merge
A mail merge shortcut that supports multiple variables for email addresses and a second piece of information for each recipient. Each email address is automatically paired with the corresponding variable in the second group. Supports customizable message and subject templates.
Evernote
Twitter to Evernote
Convert a tweet URL into an embeddable rich text version that contains the original text and links of the tweet. The rich text is then appended to an existing note in Evernote. The shortcut cleans up shortened Twitter links, maintains author names, and lets you customize the list of Evernote notes to append tweets to.
Append Links to Evernote
Append a link to an existing note in Evernote. The link is either passed to the Shortcuts extension or read from the clipboard.
Evernote Scratchpad
Quickly append text or an audio recording to a note called Scratchpad in your Evernote account. Audio will be recorded using Shortcuts’ native microphone access and recording UI; the audio file supports inline playback within Evernote.
Save Quote to Evernote
Save selections from Safari webpages as highlights in Evernote. Ideal for articles that will have multiple highlights, which will be appended to the same note. The shortcut integrates with the ShareQuote shortcut to make it easy to share highlights with iOS extensions later.
Save to Evernote and Share
Save any file shared with the Shortcuts extension to Evernote as a new note. At the end of the shortcut, an Evernote link to the note is copied to the clipboard.
Get Evernote Links
Search your Evernote account for a specific note and copy its link to the system clipboard. Your can choose whether you want to copy the shareable URL or the local Evernote URL scheme for that note.
Evernote Article
Turn any web article into a clutter-free Evernote note that maintains formatting but removes extra visual elements from the original webpage. The shortcut has to be run in the extension from Safari or Safari View Controller.
EverSafari
A comprehensive menu to save webpages from Safari as notes in Evernote. The shortcut supports saving links as rich text, .webarchive files, PDFs, plain text, or attachments. The shortcut can either create new notes or append to an existing note. See comments below for instructions on how to store a list of your favorite Evernote notebooks, tags, and notes.
Save Safari Webarchive Evernote
Generate a .webarchive version of the current Safari webpage and save it in the Evernote app. The shortcut needs to open Evernote for iOS and is also supported in Safari View Controller. The title of the original webpage is copied to the clipboard for easy pasting in Evernote’s title field.
Files
Extract All Files from Archive
Extract all files from a compressed archive passed as input and save them into the same folder in iCloud Drive/Shortcuts. The name of the archive is used to create a new destination folder in Shortcuts’ iCloud Drive container.
iCloud Drive Clipboard
Copy items items previously clipped to the Clipboard.txt file in iCloud Drive back to the system clipboard. The shortcut can be executed from the widget.
Copy iCloud Drive Link
Pick a file from iCloud Drive (or other document providers) and create a shareable iCloud Mail Drop URL to let other people download the file.
Rename and Save File
Rename the file passed as input to the shortcut and save it somewhere else with app extensions. Designed to compensate for the lack of file renaming in the ‘Save to Files’ extensions in iOS 12.
Document OCR
Perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on a document. You can import a document from Files or a scanned image from Photos. Recognized text is copied to the clipboard and can be shared with app extensions. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Clip to iCloud Clipboard
Clip any kind of text contained in the system clipboard to a Clipboard.txt file stored in iCloud Drive. This shortcut is designed to allow you to keep a record of previously copied bits of text and easily sync them across devices. The shortcut can be executed from the widget, and it also supports rich text and URLs.
FS Bookmarks
Create bookmarks for files and folders stored in iCloud Drive (and third-party file providers) that you can reuse as direct launchers. FS Bookmarks requires Scriptable, and it generates launchers that reopen files and folders directly in the Files app.
Compress Dropbox Files
Pick multiple files from Dropbox and share them as a single .zip archive.
File Downloader
Download a file from a URL stored in the system clipboard. The downloaded file can be saved in iCloud Drive or other storage providers with a native Files interface.
Preview Folder Contents
Preview the contents of a folder stored inside iCloud Drive/Shortcuts. The shortcut lets you filter items by name; if no name is entered, all files contained in the folder are returned. You can choose to preview a selected file with Quick Look or share it with extensions.
Zip and Share
Compress the input items into a .zip archive and share the archive file with app extensions. You can enter the name of the archive manually.
Scan Document
Scan a document using iOS’ native document scanner. The shortcut lets you choose whether you want to share the scanned file as an image or run OCR on it to extract text. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Pick File
Pick a file from iCloud Drive and share it with other apps through extensions.
Share Dropbox Photo
Select an image from the photo library and upload it to Dropbox. The shortcut returns a public Dropbox link to the image that can be shared with other people.
Extract Individual Files from Zip Archive
Given a compressed archive passed as input via the share sheet, this shortcut can extract the archive and save individual files contained inside it to iOS document providers.
Shortcuts Backup
Create a .zip archive containing a backup of all your shortcuts. The backup file is saved under the /Backups/ folder of Shortcuts’ iCloud Drive directory.
Health
Export Blood Pressure
Generate a report of your last blood pressure measurements, sorted by date, and export them as a text file. The HealthKit action can be customized to return larger or smaller subsets of measurements.
Log Waist
Log your current waist circumference in HealthKit by entering a numeric value. The shortcut can also be used from the widget. By default, the shortcut converts centimeters to millimeters.
Log Menstruation
Check if you recently logged menstruation or if you might be due to log it again and prompt to log bleeding if that is the case.
Log Weight
Log your current weight in HealthKit by entering a numeric value. The shortcut can also be used from the widget.
Asleep Time
Read the HealthKit database to find out how much you slept last night.
You can modify the shortcut to customize Siri’s response based on how much time you slept.
Last Coffee
Check how long ago you had your last coffee based on when caffeine was last logged in HealthKit. You can use this shortcut in the widget and Siri.
Water Today
Check how much water you’ve drunk today based on water entries logged in HealthKit. You can use this shortcut in the widget and Siri.
Glass of Water
Log a small glass of water in HealthKit. By default, the shortcut logs 150 milliliters of water to the Health app.
Log Espresso
Log a cup of espresso as caffeine intake in HealthKit. By default, the shortcut logs 50 milligrams of caffeine to the Health app. The shortcut can also be used from the widget and Siri.
Home
Shuffle Playlist on HomePod
Shuffle a playlist on a specific HomePod, with a specific volume level, and dim the lights. The shortcut needs to be configured based on speakers and HomeKit devices in your home.
Electricity Price
Uses the ComEd Current Hour Average electricity price API for Northern Illinois to return the average price of electricity for the current hour in USD.
JavaScript
Video Speed Up
Speed up a native video player in Safari choosing from a list of speed presets.
Full Screen Video
Enable full-screen mode for a native video player in Safari.
Mac
Sleep Mac
Put the display connected to a Mac on the same local network as your iOS device to sleep.
HomePod Speaker Volume
Change the volume of multiple HomePods (or AirPlay speakers) connected to iTunes at once. The list of preset volume levels is customizable. The shortcut can also be run from the iOS widget.
Check youtube-dl Formats
Use youtube-dl to check the available download formats for a YouTube link copied to the clipboard on iOS. The shortcut assumes youtube-dl has been installed on a local Mac under the /usr/local/bin folder.
iTunes Current Song
Get the album artwork of the song currently playing on iTunes on the Mac.
Set Active Speakers and Volume
Change the volume of individual HomePods (or AirPlay speakers) connected to iTunes and choose which ones should be currently active. The shortcut lets you select one or multiple speakers as well as enter an exact volume level.
Wake Mac + Login
Wake the display connected to a Mac on the same local network as your iOS device and paste your password in the login screen by simulating keystrokes.
Play iTunes Playlist
Choose a playlist to start playing with iTunes on a Mac. The shortcut requires you to enter the exact name of playlists you want to play once, upon configuring the shortcut for the first time.
Wake Mac
Wake the display connected to a Mac on the same local network as your iOS device.
Set Mac Clipboard
Set your Mac’s clipboard to the contents of the current iOS clipboard. The shortcut cleans up the iOS clipboard by escaping line breaks and quotes.
Toggle iTunes
Toggle the player state of the iTunes app on a Mac on the same local network as your iOS device.
Markdown
Spreadsheet to Markdown Table
Convert a spreadsheet to a MultiMarkdown table. For the best experience, select a table in Numbers, copy cells, then run the shortcut.
Safari Markdown Selection
Convert a rich text selection from a Safari webpage to Markdown and copy the plain text to the clipboard. The shortcut needs to run as an extension in Safari.
Markdown Table of Contents
Extract section headings from Markdown text shared with the extension and generate a Table of Contents for headings between H2 and H6. The final list supports indentation and is copied to the clipboard as Markdown.
Strip Out Markdown
Take Markdown from the system clipboard and put a cleaned-up version without markers back into the clipboard.
Preview Markdown
Preview Markdown text passed to the Shortcuts extension as converted HTML. The shortcut works from any app that can pass Markdown-formatted plain text to the share sheet, and it’ll open a rich preview inline using a native web view.
Media
Handoff to HomePod
Hand off audio playback (for Music and Podcasts) from your current device to a HomePod of your choice. You can customize the list and names of HomePods (based on your setup) in a menu.
youtube-dl
Download a video from YouTube using youtube-dl and the a-Shell app for iPhone or iPad. The shortcut accepts any YouTube URLs passed from Safari or the YouTube app via the share sheet. Detailed instructions on how to set up youtube-dl and a-Shell can be found here.
Plex Inspect Section IDs
Find the IDs for media sections of your Plex library running on a local server. These IDs can then be used with another shortcut to refresh (scan) individual Plex media sections such as Movies or TV shows. The shortcut requires your Plex token and returns raw XML data. The shortcut was originally created for Club MacStories members.
Handoff from HomePod
Hand off audio playback (for Music and Podcasts) from a HomePod of your choice to the current device. You can customize the list and names of HomePods (based on your setup) in a menu.
Pause HomePods
Pause all HomePods (or AirPlay 2 speakers) around the house in one go. The shortcut supports adding as many ‘Pause’ actions as necessary for each speaker you want to pause.
YouTube Watch Later
Open the default watch later queue in the official YouTube app for iPhone and iPad.
Search YouTube
Type a search query and open search results in the YouTube app. The shortcut supports both keyboard input and conversational mode in Siri.
ShortSwitch
Wirelessly transfer screenshots or videos from a Nintendo Switch to an iPhone or iPad. After entering ‘sharing mode’ on a Switch console, the shortcut can connect to the Switch, fetch media, and enable you to save items to Photos or Files, copy them to the clipboard, or share them via the share sheet.
Round Avatar
Create a round avatar based on someone’s Twitter profile picture. To run this shortcut, save a profile image from Twitter first.
Encode to Audio and Share
Encode the file passed to the shortcut as audio and apply custom metadata to it such as artwork, artist name, and album. The audio file is then shared with extensions.
Play HomePod
Set the playback destination to a specific HomePod on your local network and start playing audio.
Plex Scan Section
Refresh (scan) individual Plex media sections such as Movies or TV shows from Shortcuts or Siri. The shortcut requires your Plex token to communicate with a Plex server running on the same local network as the iOS device. The shortcut was originally created for Club MacStories members.
Music
Apple Music Wrapped
Create a detailed report for the music you’ve listened to in the past year. The shortcut can optionally create a Top 25 playlist for your most played songs and generate a PDF report. The shortcut is primarily designed for Apple Music subscribers.
To calculate number of plays, the shortcut looks at songs that have been played in full without skipping and added to your library in any given year.
Find Lyrics
Get the title of the currently playing song and search for its lyrics on Google.
Playlists
Start a playlist in Apple Music with shuffle enabled. The shortcut needs to be configured with the names of your playlists from the Music app. The shortcut supports adding friendly names for playlists if you don’t want to display their actual names.
MusicBot
MusicBot is the all-in-one Apple Music assistant, powered by Shortcuts. Entirely customizable and designed for Apple Music, MusicBot speeds up access to your favorite music and comes with dozens of features to help you play albums, browse songs, check out new releases, and even listen to the Apple Music 1 radio or ambient sounds by Apple Music. Additionally, MusicBot lets you create your own collection of favorite albums and new music releases, comes with AirPlay 2 support and various audio controls, and provides you with Smart Mixes – intelligent playlists to discover songs you love from your Music library with one tap. In its latest update, MusicBot also integrates with Shazam to recognize songs, lets you read the latest music news and album reviews, and fully supports iOS 14’s compact UI.
Notes
Find Notes (with Menu)
Open frequently used notes choosing from a list of titles or manually search for a specific note in the Notes app.
Dictate Note (with Menu)
Use iOS’ native speech-to-text to dictate a note in a language of your choosing from the Shortcuts widget. The list of supported languages can be customized in the shortcut. Starting with Shortcuts 2.2, it is possible to save dictated text to Notes in the background – directly from the widget – without showing the Notes composer. The Notes action can be replaced with other note-taking apps such as Evernote or Drafts.
View Recent Notes
Bring up a list of recently modified notes and quickly reopen one of them.
Append to Note
Quickly append text to a note called Scratchpad in your Notes app. Audio will be recorded using Shortcuts’ native microphone access and dictation feature.
Dictate to Note
Quickly append text to a Scratchpad note in Apple’s Notes app using dictation.
Attach to Bear Note
Append a file or image to the bottom of a note in Bear. The shortcut will either present the native Files or Photos picker before launching the Bear app.
Photos
Combine Images
Combine multiple images into a single image. The shortcut supports images passed as input via the extension as well as picking images manually from the photo library.
On This Day
Search your photo library for old photos taken on this day in previous years. The shortcut can look for photos from multiple years, with multiple photos per day. If more than one photo is found, photos are resized to square and combined in a grid.
Home Screen Icon Creator
Create a custom icon on your iOS home screen for any app URL scheme, shortcut, contact, or solid color. This shortcut uses the same technique of Apple’s Shortcuts app to save an icon to the home screen, but extends it with the ability to fully customize the launcher, including icons and launch images. (Due to a limitation in iOS 13, you’ll have to force-quit instances of Home Screen Icon Creator-based launchers in the app switcher for the launchers to work again>)
iPhone 11 Lens Inspector
Visualize the lens used to capture a photo. The shortcut can run inside the Photos app and supports the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro’s wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide lenses.
Convert to JPEG and Copy
Convert any image previously copied to the clipboard to JPEG, stripping metadata from it. The converted image is copied to the clipboard, and you can optionally save it in the Photos app.
Share Clipboard Image
Share an image from the system clipboard with app extensions. The shortcut supports both images and photo media contained in the clipboard.
OCR with Prizmo Go
Perform OCR on an image (either captured from the camera or selected from Photos) using Prizmo Go. The shortcut can ask Prizmo Go to perform standard OCR or Cloud OCR. You can choose to copy extracted text to the clipboard or send it as a text file to DEVONthink.
Live Photo to GIF
Convert a Live Photo to an animated GIF and preview it in Quick Look. The GIF can be saved to the Photos app directly from the preview.
Get Images from Webpage
Count the number of images contained in the current Safari webpage. This shortcut can run in Safari and Safari View Controller from the share sheet.
Apple Frames
Add device frames to screenshots for iPhones (6, 7, 8, X, XS, 11, SE, and 12 generations in mini/standard/Plus/Max sizes), iPad Pro (11” and 12.9”, 2018/2020 models), and Apple Watch S4/5/6 (40 and 44mm). The shortcut supports portrait and landscape orientations, but does not support Display Zoom. If multiple screenshots are passed as input, they will be combined in a single image. The shortcut can be run in the Shortcuts app, as a Home Screen widget, or via the share sheet.
iPhone 11 Lens Browser
Filter your photo library by the lens used to capture a photo. The shortcut is optimized for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, and it supports the wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide lenses. By default, the shortcut looks at the last 300 photos from your library.
Markup Screenshots
Markup multiple screenshots in a row using iOS’ native screenshot annotation tools. You can choose to save or share the edited version. Optionally, the originals can be deleted.
WallCreator Automated
Automatically create and install wallpapers for iPhone and iPad featuring solid colors or gradients. Wallpapers are automatically sized for different devices. This shortcut is designed to be used as a Personal Automation in the Shortcuts app via a single ‘Run Shortcut’ action.
Encode Image
Encode any image previously copied to the clipboard in Base64. The resulting string of plain text is copied to the clipboard.
Preview Photo Metadata
Preview photos shared from Photos’ share sheet in a custom preview page. The preview contains the photo, its timestamp, plus metadata including an interactive map. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
iPhone 11 Lens Browser (Extended)
Filter your photo library by the lens used to capture a photo. The shortcut is optimized for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, and it supports the wide, telephoto, and ultra-wide lenses. By default, the shortcut looks at the last 50 photos from your library and opens a custom preview showing metadata for each photo. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Get Image Resolution
Get the resolution of any image passed from the share sheet, picked from Photos, or previously copied to the clipboard.
Podcasts
Overcast Play Menu
Start playback of a specific show or playlist in Overcast 5 using dictation. Best experienced as a widget. The shortcut requires configuration of Siri shortcuts in the Overcast app.
Podcast Episodes
Start playing an episode from a podcast in the user’s Podcasts library. The shortcut allows you to customize the playback destination.
Overcast Clip to Files
Save a video clip shared from Overcast in the Files app. The shortcut will extract the video file from the Overcast clip (shared via the share sheet) and rename it with the title of episode being shared.
Play Random Podcast Episode
Play a random episode for a random podcast in your Podcasts app library.
Subscribe to Podcast
Search and subscribe to a new show in Apple’s Podcasts app. The new show will be added to your library.
Overcast Controls
Navigate chapters or copy links for the Overcast episode you’re currently listening to. Best used as a widget.
Task Management
Things Natural Language Parser
An advanced shortcut that lets you create multiple tasks at once in Things using natural language parsing. The shortcut has its own special syntax to add tasks with natural language, and takes advantage of Things’ JSON Import for multiple tasks.
Scan GoodTask Subtasks
Scan the Reminders database for tasks that contain subtasks based on the GoodTask syntax.
ReScheduler
Reschedule any reminder to a later date. You can pick multiple reminders at once and change their due date by choosing from some presets or typing a date manually. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Append Notes to Things Task
Append notes to an existing task in the Things app. The shortcut can append links or text passed to the share sheet, but it also lets you type or paste your own notes manually. To use the shortcut, you’ll have to add your Things URL token and paste the unique IDs of existing Things tasks.
Create Reminder with Rich Link
Create a reminder for the webpage currently open in Safari or Safari View Controller using the webpage’s original title and URL. The shortcut needs to be executed from the share sheet. The original webpage’s URL will be saved as a rich link in the reminder.
Create Webpage Reminder
Create a reminder for the webpage currently open in Safari or Safari View Controller using the webpage’s original title and URL. You can type a due date in natural language. The shortcut needs to be executed from the action extension.
Today ReScheduler
Reschedule reminders due today (or overdue) to a later date. You can pick multiple reminders at once and change their due date by choosing from some presets or typing a date manually. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Link to 2Do
Save a link from the clipboard or shared via the extension to 2Do as a new task. You can pick from multiple lists and optionally define a tag to be automatically applied to the new task. The original link is embedded in the task as a ‘Visit URL’ action.
Webpage to Things
Turn a Safari webpage into a rich task in Things. The shortcut can add a task with a specific tag, into a specific project, under a specific heading in Things using the webpage’s original title and URL as the task’s metadata. Additionally, you can type a due date in natural language before creating the task in Things.
New Reminder+ (Extended)
A custom menu to create new tasks in the Reminders app. You can keep running the shortcut to add multiple reminders in a row. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Remove Completed Reminders
Purge completed reminders from the Reminders app (and iCloud) with one tap. The shortcut displays a confirmation prompt before deleting reminders.
Things Checklist Template
Create a task with a checklist in Things based on a fixed template that is stored in the Shortcuts app.
Remind Me in Due
Quickly create a new reminder in the Due app. The shortcut can be run inside the Shortcuts app or via Siri, and it’ll ask you to enter a reminder title and due date. In Siri, dates and times support natural language input.
This shortcut requires the Due app.
Log Completed Reminders
Save the number of reminders completed on the current day as a new row of a Numbers spreadsheet. The completed count will be saved alongside the current date, allowing you to chart your progress over time in Numbers.
Add Reminder with GoodTask Subtasks
Create a new task in the Reminders database with subtasks based on the GoodTask syntax. Subtasks have to be entered on multiple lines and they’ll be added to the reminder’s note field. Subtasks can be previewed natively in the GoodTask app.
New Reminder+
A custom menu to create new tasks in the Reminders app. You can keep running the shortcut to add multiple reminders in a row.
Search Reminders For…
Search your Reminders’ note fields for a specific text query. By default, the search query is chosen from a list of pre-assembled options.
Reminder with Links
Searches the Reminders app for tasks that contain URLs in their note field. Optionally, you can add more filters (for dates, Reminders lists, etc.) to narrow down the list of results. The shortcut lets you open multiple URLs from multiple reminders at once in Safari.
Text
Clean Up Rich Text
Remove unnecessary styles from rich text stored in the system clipboard. This shortcut will maintain formatting for bold, italics, and links, but it’ll remove other elements such as custom fonts, font sizes, colors, and more. The cleaned up rich text will be put back in the clipboard at the end.
Word & Character Count
Display a count of words and characters contained in the system clipboard.
ShareQuote
Share the text shared as input via iOS extensions. The shortcut is best used as a function of other shortcuts or as a simple launcher with apps such as Drafts or Launch Center Pro.
Copy Blank Characters
Generate a string of invisible characters based on the Braille Pattern Blank Unicode character (U+2800). This is a workaround to create shortcuts with invisible names on the iOS home screen. The shortcut lets you choose how many times you’d like to repeat the blank character to avoid issues with multiple shortcuts having the same name.
PDF Extract
Extract text from a PDF document picked from Files using iOS’ native text extraction APIs. The resulting text is copied to the clipboard.
Append to Clipboard
Get text from the share sheet and append it to the system clipboard as a new line.
Create Hyperlink
Create a rich text hyperlink based on a URL from the system clipboard. This shortcut is ideal for creating underlined links for apps that do not support rich link creation such as Notes or Apple Mail.
Shortcut Rich Link
Create a rich text link to open one of your shortcuts in the Shortcuts app. The rich link can be pasted in apps like Notes, Mail, and other apps that support tappable links.
Time Tracking
Timer Running
This shortcut returns details for any currently running timer in your Toggl account.
Start Toggl Timer
Start a new timer in your Toggl account. The timer can be assigned a specific description, task, and tag using variables.
Prepare Toggl Template
This shortcut extracts a project ID and task ID from a project in your Toggl account. These IDs are needed to configure shortcuts that start timers. To access your Toggl account over the API, enter your email:password combination below. The shortcut communicates directly with the Toggl API.
Check Timery
Check your currently-running timer and total time logged for the day. Timery for Toggl is required for this shortcut.
Start Timer for Event
Start a Toggl timer (with the Timery app) based on an event name found in a specific calendar (or multiple calendars). You have to specify the event name in a list and replace the Siri shortcuts for Timery if you don’t have the app installed.
Stop Timers
This shortcut stops any currently running timer in your Toggl account.
Open in Twitter Apps
Open a Twitter link in Tweetbot, Twitterrific, or the official Twitter app. Both profile links and individual tweets are supported. The shortcut can be run inside the widget.
Tweet Song
Share the song you’re listening to on Twitter. The shortcut shares the song’s name, artist, and artwork.
Search Twitter User’s Mentions
View all the mentions, @replies, and quoted tweets sent to a specific Twitter user in a single screen. The shortcut is based on Twitter’s advanced search syntax and opens the native Twitter app for iOS.
Weather
Today Weather Forecast
Display a weather forecast for your current location and the current day.
Weather Now
Get the current weather for a specific location provided as a street address. The shortcut can be used in the app, widget, or Siri.
Netatmo Weather Today
Return information from a Netatmo Home Weather Station, which includes indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, and data from air quality sensors.
Weather Report
Display a list of forecasts for the next few days, provided by the iOS Weather app. You can pass your street address to quickly return forecasts.
Dark Sky Check
Use the Dark Sky API to display a short summary of current weather conditions and the forecast for today. The shortcut requires a free Dark Sky API key, which has to be saved in iCloud Drive. It also requires pasting your coordinates in the first Text action. Once configured, the shortcut can be used with the widget or Siri.
Web
Add Clipboard Row to Google Sheet
Send a link from the iOS clipboard to IFTTT, which will add it as a new row in a Google spreadsheet. Requires setup of an IFTTT applet to turn a webhook request into a Google Sheets row.
Get Article Hero Image
Use Shortcuts’ native support for parsing web articles to identify the featured (hero) image of an article and save it to the Photos app. The shortcut needs to run as an extension in Safari or Safari View Controller.
DEVONweb
Save a webpage from Safari as a .webarchive or PDF file in DEVONthink To Go. To use this shortcut, share a webpage from Safari with the share sheet. You can optionally add a comment to the item. At the end of the shortcut, the DEVONthink URL to the newly created item will be copied to the clipboard.
Custom RSS Reader
Preview headlines and excerpts from your favorite blogs in a custom preview powered by RSS feeds. Toolbox Pro is required for this shortcut.
Tech News
Get the latest Apple news from one of your favorite tech blogs. Headlines can be previewed in Siri or the widget, and you can read articles using Safari View Controller.
Convert Historical Currencies
Convert between currencies using the Fixer.io web service. The shortcut requires a private API key to operate. The shortcut supports historical exchange rates and lets you convert between currencies using the current date or any past date. You can type dates with natural language. The converted amount is copied to the clipboard at the end.
Parse JSON Feed
Parse any JSON feed and display a list of recent posts to choose from. You can pick any post from the list to instantly open it in Safari.
Extract Image Links from Webpage
Given a selection in Safari, the shortcut finds all image links contained in the selected portion of the page and offers to open them as new tabs. Selected image links are also copied to the clipboard.
PiP Video
Enable Picture in Picture mode for a native video player in Safari. Only works on iPad.
Safari Reader Article to Mail
Share an article from Safari via Mail with a clean presentation powered by Safari Reader. You can also run the shortcut from a widget or the Shortcuts app by copying an article’s URL first.
Share Long URL
Expand a short URL into the long, unfurled version. Optionally, you can share a textshot associated with the URL by picking a photo from the library.
Inspect RSS Feed
Find the RSS feed for a Safari webpage and inspect its raw XML contents inside the Shortcuts extension.
RSS: Subscribe in Fiery
Find the RSS feed for a Safari webpage and subscribe to it. This shortcut requires the app Fiery Feeds to be installed.
Trigger IFTTT Webhook
Trigger a webhook-based IFTTT applet from Shortcuts. Requires an IFTTT Maker developer key. The shortcut can be executed from Siri or the widget as well.
Safari Markdown to Rich Text
Convert a rich text selection from a Safari webpage to Markdown and copy the cleaned-up rich text to the clipboard. The rich text will retain basic formatting with elements such as bold, italics, and hyperlinks. The shortcut needs to run as an extension in Safari.
Save to GL
Using GoodLinks’ URL scheme, the shortcut quick-saves a URL to GoodLinks from the share sheet adding a specific tag, which can be changed to something more relevant to you.
Make PDFs from Safari Selection Links
Create separate PDFs for each hyperlink contained in a Safari selection. Ideal for list of links that have to be converted to multiple PDFs (such as the Club MacStories newsletter archive). The resulting PDFs are saved into iCloud Drive.
Publish to WordPress
Publish a Markdown post to WordPress via the Shortcuts action extension. The shortcut can extract the h1 Markdown header from a post and use it as title. Optionally, you can publish both standard and “linked list” post types by adding a custom field supported by your WordPress installation.
Find RSS Feed
Find the RSS feed for a Safari webpage and copy its URL to the clipboard.
RSS: Subscribe in NNW
Find the RSS feed for a Safari webpage and subscribe to it. This shortcut requires the app NetNewsWire to be installed.
Read by Tag
Read by Tag uses GoodLinks’ Shortcuts actions to display a list of articles based on how they are tagged. Tapping on an article’s title opens it in GoodLinks.
Other
Articles by Topic
Filter articles saved in Reeder’s Read Later account by topic. The shortcut relies on iOS’ Natural Language Processing framework to extract organization names from text. You can modify the list of topics to include the ones you prefer. Toolbox Pro and Reeder are required for this shortcut.
Morning Routine
A comprehensive shortcut for your morning routine. This shortcut can read you the news, list your upcoming agenda, turn on HomeKit scenes, and much more. By default, the shortcut requires the AutoSleep app to process sleep data (AutoSleep is only available on iPhone), LookUp for the word of the day, and GoodTask for Reminders lists. It also uses the Today Weather Forecast shortcut. Optionally, the shortcut can also integrate with Apple Music, Overcast, and Deliveries. More details about this shortcut are available in the MacStories iOS 12 review.
Image to Ulysses Sheet
Add an image to an existing sheet in Ulysses. Images can be shared via the share sheet or picked manually in the Shortcuts app.
Hardware Keyboard Settings
Open the Hardware Keyboard section of the Settings app. Useful to tweak the brightness level of the Magic Keyboard for iPad.
Convert Temperature
Convert between Celsius and Fahrenheit with a menu that lets you pick a starting unit. The shortcuts supports interactions (including entering numbers) in the widget as well.
DND Menu
Enable Do Not Disturb choosing from three different types of expiration times: until manually turned off, until a calendar event is over, or until a specific time.
Add Attachment to Agenda
Append attachments to existing notes in the Agenda app. The shortcuts supports both images and documents from Files, and it can be executed from the share sheet (for input files) or the Shortcuts app.
Pay for Lunch
Send money to a friend who paid for lunch. The shortcut will add the local business’ name in the payment’s note field.
Convert Length
Convert between centimeters and inches with a menu that lets you pick a starting unit. The shortcut supports interactions (including entering numbers) in the widget as well.
DEVONmenu
A comprehensive shortcut to save a variety of file types into DEVONthink To Go. The shortcut can save Safari webpages, images, text, PDFs, videos, MP3s, and more, with the ability to add more supported file types manually. In most cases, files will be previewed natively in DEVONthink.
Linked Post → Ulysses
Create a template for a linked post to an article in Ulysses. The text selection from a Safari webpage is used as a Markdown blockquote. The original title, author name, and URL of the webpage are also preserved in the sheet.
LookUp Definition
Look up a word definition using LookUp 6.0. The shortcut lets you choose among different definition types, and it can also add a word to a collection.
Request Ride to Next Event
Request a ride to the location of your next calendar event. The shortcut relies on compatible ride sharing apps installed on your device.
Show Clipboard
Show the contents of the system clipboard. The shortcut can also show the type of the clipboard’s contents, and it can run as a widget or Siri command.
Start Workday
Start your workday by turning on a HomeKit switch, setting Hue lights to a focus mode, and waking up your Mac using the ‘Remote for Mac’ app.
Keep It Menu
An advanced shortcut for Keep It to save new notes in the app as either text or file attachments, which are previewed natively in Keep It. The shortcut can run from the Shortcuts app or as an extension. In addition to saving text notes and files, the shortcut can also save Safari webpages as web archives, live links, or PDF documents. At the end of shortcut, multiple references to Keep It notes can be saved as tasks in Reminders. This shortcut was originally created for members of Club MacStories.
DEVONmenu (with Things Parser)
A comprehensive shortcut to save a variety of file types into DEVONthink To Go. The shortcut can save Safari webpages, images, text, PDFs, videos, MP3s, and more, with the ability to add more supported file types manually. In most cases, files will be previewed natively in DEVONthink. At the end, the shortcut offers the ability to save each DEVONthink item as a task in Things using the Things Natural Language Parser syntax.
Copy Latest from Yoink
Copy the most recent item saved in the Yoink app. Can be used from the Shortcuts app, the extension, the widget, or Siri.
Change System Volume
Quickly change your device’s system volume by picking a numeric value from a list. You can customize the list to contain your favorite volume presets, which support decimal values. The shortcut can be used from the widget as well.
PCalc Currencies
Run multiple currency conversions in Siri using a number from the clipboard. This shortcut requires the PCalc app to be installed. By default, it works with EUR, USD, and GBP currencies.
Focused Work Session
Start a 20-minute focused work session by setting a timer, enabling Do Not Disturb, and starting time tracking with the Toggl iOS app.
Travel Time to Home
Calculate travel time to get home. The shortcut can be configured for different transportation methods and can be invoked from Siri or the widget.
Make PDF
Create a PDF from an item shared with the Shortcuts extension via the share sheet. The PDF is previewed with Quick Look, from where it can be saved into other locations using the share sheet.
Linked Post → Drafts 5
Create a template for a linked post to an article in Drafts 5. The text selection from a Safari webpage is used as a Markdown blockquote. The original title, author name, and URL of the webpage are also preserved in the note.
DEVONimage
Save one or multiple images in DEVONthink To Go for iOS. Images can be passed from the share sheet or picked manually from Photos or Files. At the end of the shortcut, a plain text reference with a DEVONthink URL for the newly created items will be copied to the system clipboard.
DEVONsearch
Search your DEVONthink To Go database (or specific group) for one or multiple files matching a series of keywords. The shortcut can either perform a basic search or a NEAR-operator search; results can be displayed in Shortcuts (with a ranking score) or in the DEVONthink app.
Clip to Yoink
Save the contents of the system clipboard to Yoink. Can be used from the Shortcuts app, the extension, the widget, or Siri.
Search Pocket
Search your last 50 unread Pocket items for a particular search query, which you can type directly in the shortcut. The result you pick will be opened in Safari.
Open Settings
Open a specific page or sub-section of the Settings app. This shortcut contains over 120 Settings URLs, and you can choose which one to open from a list. You can also create standalone shortcuts for each URL.
The shortcut works in the app, widget, and Siri.
Snooze Slack 1 Hour
Snooze your Slack notifications for 1 hour. The shortcut supports setting a different duration for Slack’s do not disturb mode and can also turn off snooze if already enabled. Requires a test API token.
Get Coordinates
Get your current coordinates and copy them to the clipboard. The shortcut uses native location access to identify your position on Earth. Best used with Dark Sky shortcuts for weather data.
Share iTunes Affiliate Link
Given a link to an item copied from the iTunes Store, this shortcut lets you easily transform it into an affiliate link, which you can share with extensions.
Choose and Turn On Alarm
Choose one of your existing alarms from the Clock app and turn it on.
WallCreator
Create and install Home or Lock Screen wallpapers for iPhone and iPad featuring solid colors or gradients. Wallpapers are automatically sized for different devices. You can enter your favorite color codes manually, or you can let the shortcut generate random colors for you.
Shortcuts Picker
Pick a Shortcuts folder, then pick a shortcut contained inside that folder you want to run.
Downloading and Using Shortcuts
Anyone is free to download, modify, and redistribute shortcuts from the MacStories archive. Our shortcuts are provided for free and out of love for the Shortcuts automation community. In fact, we encourage readers to download shortcuts and optimize them to their needs. No attribution is necessary, but we always appreciate it.
If you’re new to the Shortcuts app, you can find our coverage here; we also recommend going back through the Workflow archives for additional context. All of our workflows have been updated for the Shortcuts app and are included in this archive.
For an introduction to the Shortcuts app, we highly recommend Apple’s official Shortcuts guide. We also think the Reddit community at r/shortcuts is a good place to find other users interested in Apple’s Shortcuts.
Unless strictly necessary to communicate with a third-party web API, our shortcuts do not rely on any external framework and/or dependencies to automatically update shortcuts or perform API calls that are not mentioned in the shortcut’s description. You can find our Terms of Use below.
The archive will be regularly updated with new shortcuts over time. Updates will be shared on Twitter via the @viticci and @macstoriesnet accounts.
Terms of Use
The shortcuts in the MacStories archive have been tested as of the date each was added to MacStories.net for compatibility with the then-current versions of Apple’s iOS operating system and the Shortcuts app. Please feel free to use these shortcuts and adapt them to fit your specific needs.
However, please keep in mind that MacStories.net, its editors, and its writers (the “MacStories team”) cannot and do not guarantee that the shortcuts will remain compatible with future updates to iOS or the Shortcuts app. Moreover, the shortcuts linked on this page are provided free of charge and as-is without any express or implied warranties including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The MacStories Team makes no specific promises about the shortcuts, the specific functions of the shortcuts, or their reliability, availability, or ability to meet your needs. In addition, the MacStories Team will not be liable to you for any lost profits or other consequential, special, indirect, or incidental damages arising out of or in connection with your use of the shortcuts.