Helper Shortcut
Shortcuts Toolbox Helper is a small companion shortcut you add to your own library. It’s required — it’s what enables Shortcuts Toolbox to extract metadata, move shortcuts between folders, delete shortcuts, and search your library.
Install it first. Click the button to add Shortcuts Toolbox Helper to your library in the Shortcuts app, then come back here.
Why it’s required
Apple’s Shortcuts app exposes only a thin URL scheme to the outside world — enough to run a shortcut, but not enough to inspect or manage your library. Shortcuts Toolbox Helper fills those gaps. It runs inside the Shortcuts app, where it has the access the URL scheme doesn’t, and hands the results back to Shortcuts Toolbox. Without it, the app can’t read a shortcut’s actions, move it, delete it, or search across your library.
What it can do
Shortcuts Toolbox Helper is a single shortcut that responds to several requests. Each one works around a specific limitation of Apple’s URL scheme:
Extract metadata
Pull a shortcut’s full details — icon, actions, JSON, plist, file size, and dates.
Move between folders
Relocate a shortcut from one folder to another without touching the Shortcuts app yourself.
Delete a shortcut
Remove a shortcut from your library directly from Shortcuts Toolbox.
Search your library
Find shortcuts by search term or folder, returning matches for the app to work with.
Open a folder
Jump straight to a folder in the Shortcuts app when you want to pick up where the toolbox left off.
Detect changes
Report which shortcuts have been modified so the toolbox knows what to re-read.
Fetch iCloud link
Retrieve a shortcut’s iCloud share link so you can hand it off or publish it.
The Device shortcut
Shortcuts Toolbox - Device is a second, optional shortcut that lives on your iPhone or iPad. It’s what lets Shortcuts Toolbox, and the AI through it, reach your device: run a shortcut there, speak, ask you a question, open an app, read the clipboard, and more. You don’t need it to manage your library on the Mac.
Install it from the helper list in Getting Started, the same place you installed the Helper. Add it on your Mac and iCloud syncs it to your devices. It brings its own Pushcut notification automation: when a Shortcuts Toolbox request arrives as a notification, the shortcut runs right away, with nothing else to set up. Requests travel through Pushcut, so you’ll also want Pushcut connected and the device switched on under Remote Execution.
What it can do
Run a shortcut
Run one of your shortcuts on the device, with input, and send its output back to the Mac.
Speak and ask
Say something out loud, or ask you a question and send back what you said.
Device info
Report location, battery, Wi-Fi, Focus, the app in front, and whether the device is locked.
Clipboard
Read what’s on the device’s clipboard, or put text on it.
Open a URL
Open a link in Safari, or in the app that owns its scheme.
Open apps
Open an app by its bundle id, place its window on iOS 27, or put two apps side by side in a half or two-thirds split.
Screenshot
Take a screenshot of the device’s screen and send it back as an image.
Music
Play an album, playlist, song or artist from your library or Apple Music. Pause, skip, set the volume, and see what’s playing.
Clear notifications
Cancel Pushcut notifications once Shortcuts Toolbox no longer needs them.
System toggles
Turn a Focus on or off, switch the flashlight, set the brightness, and toggle Low Power Mode.
The helper is part of getting set up. If you haven’t yet, start with Installation to get Shortcuts Toolbox on your Mac, then walk through the Quick Start to connect everything and run your first shortcut.