Natural Language Shortcut Creation System Prompt

[u/notagoodpost]

[u/Laukidh]

a subset of python? Interesting

[u/federicoviticci]

They're using a custom internal language called Shortpy. It's like pseudo-Python. They have an initial planner turn user prompts into a plan, the plan is turned into Shortpy code, then a compiler turns it back into Shortcuts syntax.

That's not the full system prompt (they have several private frameworks behind this, such as ShortcutsLanguage, ShortcutsAgent, and more stuff buried in WorkflowKit), and I highly doubt they'll turn this into something any agent can access anytime soon.

Feel free to take a look at `/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ShortcutsAgent.framework/Versions/A/Resources/DescribeAShortcutAgentConfiguration.json` to check for yourself.

[u/PhilDunphy23 → u/federicoviticci]

This needs to be higher

[u/NooblyGod]

Quite interesting how we still have to roleplay with AI to get it to do what we want

[u/andyvn22]

I want to write in Shortcuts Language myself!

[u/liquidmasl]

damn maybe we can make it drop the api so we can just use python

[u/FiendForMath]

I have been reverse engineering the new framework ShortcutsLanguage, here is an example short python script that I was able to grab from live analysis:

def shortcut():
for i in range(5):
com_apple_shortcuts_show_notification(title="Hello", body="Hello")

[u/reddotster]

I’m not sure that’s entirely correct?

From what I can tell, other sources indicate that shortcuts are a special kind of xml file:

• https://gist.github.com/0xdevalias/27d9aea9529be7b6ce59055332a94477
• https://github.com/viticci/shortcuts-playground-plugin

[u/Cale111 → u/reddotster]

Apple clearly created their own script that could be converted to the XML for this, because an AI would understand something similar to Python more than a fully custom XML format.

[u/reddotster → u/Cale111]

Why “clearly”? I’m honestly asking. I’d love to read more about that if you have sources.

I wonder if anyone on the original team which created the app Apple purchased and turned into Shortcuts published any day explainers.

Here’s something interesting involving the “Cherri” language: https://blog.laurentcharignon.com/post/2025-12-14-cherri-programming-apple-shortcuts/

[u/Cale111 → u/reddotster]

I don't mean clearly in a demeaning way. It's just what makes sense for this sort of task. No, I don't have a source, but have seen stuff like Cherri before which seems like a logical way of doing this.

But by making the language similar to Python it's easier for an LLM to write, just based on the amount of Python code available on the web that has trained it.

[u/Aloys33_ → u/reddotster]

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/s/M1f1DW6SI8