MacStories Launches ‘Shortcuts Playground’: An AI Plugin for Generating Apple Shortcuts
The plugin turns natural language prompts into fully signed, importable .shortcut files using AI coding agents.
MacStories has released Shortcuts Playground, a free and open-source plugin designed for AI coding agents Claude Code and Codex. The tool allows users to generate shortcuts for Apple’s Shortcuts app directly from natural language descriptions.
How It Works
Shortcuts Playground converts user prompts into XML-formatted shortcuts, then uses Apple’s command-line tool to sign them as .shortcut files ready for import.
The plugin includes comprehensive documentation and validation scripts to improve accuracy, though all generated shortcuts require manual verification before use.
Supported Features
- Built-in Shortcuts actions
- Web APIs
- Shell scripting
- AppleScript
Recommended AI Models
For the best results, the developers recommend using:
- Claude Opus 4.6 / 4.7
- GPT-5.5
Development & Background
MacStories editor Federico Viticci developed the plugin over six months, building upon an open-source foundation created by drewocarr.
The plugin features a "Craig Loop" validation script that iteratively fixes errors during the generation process. Viticci also fed his personal shortcut archive into Codex to study patterns and improve output quality.
Availability
- Shortcuts Playground can be installed via Claude Code or Codex directly from its GitHub repository.
- Club MacStories+ and Premier members receive a generative shortcut version for cross-device installation.
- The redesigned MacStories Shortcuts Archive now includes 100 shortcuts generated by the plugin.
Looking Ahead
Viticci stated that he expects Apple to eventually release an official, more capable version of this type of tool.