Buried deep inside everything announced at WWDC this year was something I, an Apple Shortcuts enthusiast, can’t wait to try: the ability to make Apple Shortcuts using generative artificial intelligence. In macOS 27, you’ll be able to just type what you want a shortcut to do, and the app will build it.
Anyone who builds shortcuts regularly knows the process of doing so can be tedious, even if the end results save you a lot of time. So I’m excited about the idea of describing what you want in plain language and ending up with a working shortcut. Even if it doesn’t work perfectly (let’s face it, AI-built things rarely do), it’s a starting point that you can tweak to meet your needs.
The only downside: This feature doesn’t launch until autumn, when version 27 of Apple’s operating systems come out.
What if you want to try it now? It turns out that Federico Viticci, who founded and runs the fantastic blog MacStories, also couldn’t wait—so much so that he went and built his own version. It’s called Shortcuts Playground, which runs in either Claude Code or OpenAI’s Codex. (OpenAI’s Codex is free for now; Claude Code requires at least a Pro plan, which starts at $20 per month.)
To get started you first need to install the Shortcuts Playground agent; there are instructions on GitHub. Basically you will need to copy and paste a command into the Terminal. (I am not going to include the command here in case it changes.)
I tested this in Claude Code, but the tool works the same way in Codex. Once you’ve installed Shortcuts Playground you can trigger it by typing / followed by “shortcuts.” You’ll see a list of options pop up:
If you’re starting from scratch, I recommend using the shortcuts-playground:build option, followed by a rough description of what you want the shortcut to do. (The other option, shortcuts-playground:remix, is for making changes to existing shortcuts.)
The agent will get to work building a shortcut for you. Sometimes it will stop to ask you for more information, or to explain what is and isn’t possible to build in Apple Shortcuts.
While exploring this tool, I asked for a shortcut that compiled today’s weather, my calendar appointments, and my to-do list for the day, then read the entire thing out loud. The agent happily went to work.
When everything is done, the agent builds a .shortcut file and tells me where to find it. It also gave a few details, offering to tweak things if necessary. I went ahead and found the .shortcut file and opened it.
A pop-up offers to add the shortcut. Click it, then open the Shortcuts app, and you’ll find your new shortcut waiting for you. There are generally comments in the shortcut explaining to you what each step does.
My Morning Briefing shortcut worked well, though I had to tweak it to show only today’s tasks (not tasks with no due dates). Even with that imperfection, I had a working shortcut a lot faster than I would have by building it myself. This shortcut included looping, a way of processing multiple items that’s necessary to include but annoying to set up.
It’s not perfect. From what I can tell this tool doesn’t know about actions offered by apps I’ve installed, only the actions provided by the OS. That shortcoming aside, this is a very quick way to build a shortcut (or at least, get to a starting point).
So this is going to be how I build shortcuts now—at least until Apple launches its official tool in a few months. I can’t wait to see how it compares, and to share my thoughts with you here.
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