Access · Apple Shortcuts
Run an action from an Apple Shortcut on an iPhone or a Mac
Shortcuts is Apple’s app for one-tap routines on iPhone, iPad and Mac. A Shortcut can run an action in the Directory by opening a link that carries a token. The iPhone can also send things in: text or a web page from the share sheet, a photo, a voice note, where it is.
A Shortcut uses a token from us, limited to the actions it needs.
Shortcuts
Each tile opens one link. Each link carries a token that runs one action.
An illustration. The business and the people are made up.
How much detail
Developers: choose “For your developer” for the exact links a Shortcut opens.
One tap
One tap opens a link, and the link runs one action
- 1
The Shortcut opens a link
With Apple’s “Get Contents of URL” step. The link names the action and carries a token.
- 2
The system checks the token
It runs only the actions it names, until it expires, until its uses run out, unless you revoked it.
- 3
The action runs
On whichever computer does that work: Cloudflare’s servers, a Mac, a browser.
- 4
The answer comes back to the phone
The Shortcut can show it, speak it, or pass it to its next step.
- 5
It is written to the Ledger
The use of the token, the request and the answer.
You tap a tile on your phone. Something happens in your business: a text goes out, a gate opens, the day’s bookings appear.
Each Shortcut is limited to the actions its token names. Give a staff member’s phone a Shortcut with a token for one action, and that is all it can do.
The Shortcut does a GET on /s/<action>?args=…&token=tk_…. No key is ever on the phone; a key in a link is refused. The answer is JSON with ok, result, call_id and a receipt link that opens this call’s Ledger entries with the same token.
The link
It is one web address: the system’s address, the action’s name, its inputs, and the token. Choose “For your developer” to see two examples.
The link
https://miscsubjects.com/s/NOW?token=YOUR_TOKEN
https://miscsubjects.com/s/ACTION_NAME?args=%7B%22to%22%3A%22Dana%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22Running%2010%20minutes%20late%22%7D&token=YOUR_TOKEN
YOUR_TOKENis a placeholder: tokens come from us. ACTION_NAME is an action’s name from the Directory. The inputs are {"to": "Dana", "text": "Running 10 minutes late"}, URL-encoded; in Shortcuts they are usually built with a “Text” step and inserted into the link.
Why a token
The phone holds a token, never the key
- A token runs only the actions it names.
- It can expire at a time you choose, or after a number of uses.
- If the phone is lost or changes hands, revoke the token: its links stop working, and everything else keeps running.
- Every use, and every refused use, is written to the Ledger.
The token on this phone
Runs: Running late · Today’s bookings
Works until
Revoked
After you revoke it, a tap answers
Refused: the token was revoked
An illustration. The business and the people are made up.
From the iPhone
The iPhone can send things to the system
A Shortcut in the share sheet, or one that runs on its own, sends what is on the phone to the system. Each one is a request like any other: checked, then written to the Ledger.
Text from the share sheet
Select text in any app and share it to the Shortcut. It arrives as if you had typed it to your assistant.
A web page
Share a page from Safari. The system reads the page as text and hands it on.
A photo
A receipt, a whiteboard, a damaged part. The photo is kept, and handed on with its caption.
A voice note
Recorded on the phone. The system writes out what was said, and handles it like a message you sent.
Where the phone is
A place you name, such as “arrived: office”, sent when the Shortcut runs.
The clipboard
Whatever was last copied on the phone.
An action can wait for your yes, on the phone
An action that should not run without you can ask first: your phone gets a notification describing it, and the action runs only when you approve. If you deny it, nothing runs. Both answers are written to the Ledger.
On the Mac
The same Shortcuts run on a Mac, and the system can run them there
Shortcuts made on the iPhone sync to the Mac through iCloud. On a Mac connected to the system, running one of your Shortcuts by its name is itself an action in the Directory. So a program, an AI app or a spreadsheet cell can run a Shortcut on your Mac.
From a terminal on the Mac
macOS can run any Shortcut from the command line.
shortcuts run "Running late"
What it reaches
Any action in the Directory can sit behind a Shortcut
Live, read from this site just now.
Put it on your phone.
Text us what you want to tap for. You get a Shortcut and a token limited to those actions.