Shortcuts for Mac?

Jason Snell, in his wishlist for Mac news at next week’s WWDC:

One feature that the Mac desperately needs from iPadOS is, believe it or not, Shortcuts. I’ve written elsewhere about this, but essentially it’s easier for me to create automations for many tasks on iOS than it is on macOS — and it shouldn’t be that way. Shortcuts fulfills the promise of Automator in ways that Automator never did, and while it’s got a lot of room to grow, it’s clearly the future of automation on Apple’s platforms. Add in actions that can run AppleScript, Automator workflows, and shell scripts, and we’ll really have something.

I’ve gotten more into Shortcuts in the last few months, and I really hope this happens. I just wonder how Shortcuts on Mac could offer actions for things that aren’t possible on iOS, like Snell’s suggestion for being able to run AppleScript and shell scripts. I suppose they’d just generate an error on iOS, and you could use them in a cross-platform shortcut by conditionally testing whether the shortcut is running on MacOS — pretty much how it works now when you have a shortcut containing actions that require a third-party app to be installed.

★ Wednesday, 2 June 2021