> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://pomeroy.app/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Run Shortcuts by asking your AI assistant

> Run your Apple Shortcuts by asking. Pomeroy runs any shortcut you have already built, by name, and reads back the result. It cannot create or change a shortcut.

Switch Shortcuts on in Pomeroy and your assistant can list the shortcuts you
have already built, run one by its exact name, pass a line of text into it, and
read back whatever it produces. It cannot create, edit, or delete a shortcut,
and it cannot run one you have not made yourself. Pomeroy never reads your
screen and never asks for Accessibility, so a shortcut you built is how an
assistant reaches an app Pomeroy has no tools for.

Uses [Shortcuts](/docs/apps/shortcuts).

## How do I get a shortcut run by asking?

Ask for it by name. Your shortcuts can be listed, the one you name is run, and
whatever it produces is read back to you. Pomeroy runs them through the
shortcuts command that ships with macOS, and only ever by the exact name you
asked for.

A name you would actually say out loud is worth having. "Wind Down" and
"Morning Summary" are easy to ask for; a shortcut called "Untitled Shortcut 3"
is not.

```text theme={null}
Run my Wind Down shortcut.
What shortcuts do I have?
Run Morning Summary and read me the result.
```

## Can I pass something into a shortcut?

Yes, one line of text. What you say can be passed into a shortcut as its input,
which is how a shortcut becomes something you dictate rather than something you
fill in. An expense, a journal entry, or a line for a log all work this way.

Build the shortcut to take text as its input in the Shortcuts app, and it is
ready. Whatever the shortcut hands back comes into the conversation, so the
result can be read to you and carried on from.

```text theme={null}
Run my Add Expense shortcut with '12.40 lunch'.
Run my Daily Journal shortcut with today's highlights as the input.
```

## What about an app Pomeroy does not support?

Build a shortcut for it and ask for that to be run. Pomeroy never reads your
screen and never asks for Accessibility, so it cannot click around an app that
offers nothing to automate. A shortcut is the same reach with you deciding the
steps.

This is the honest version of automating your Mac by asking. The steps are ones
you wrote and can read, in an app Apple ships, and they are started by name.
Nothing is inferred from pixels, and nothing new is built without you.

## Set up a shortcut you can ask for

<Steps>
  <Step title="Make the shortcut.">
    Build it in the Shortcuts app as usual. If you want to dictate something
    into it, set it to accept text as its input.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Give it a name you would say.">
    Rename it to something you would say in a sentence. A shortcut is run by
    its exact name, and a near miss runs nothing at all.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ask for the list.">
    Ask what shortcuts you have. The list that comes back is the list of names
    that will be accepted, so you can check the one you just made is there.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run it by asking.">
    Ask for it by name, with a line of text if it takes input. Whatever the
    shortcut produces comes back into the conversation.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What Pomeroy will not do here

* Create, edit, or delete a shortcut.
* Run a shortcut you have not already made.
* Guess at a name. A near miss runs nothing and lists the closest candidates instead.
* Leave a shortcut waiting: one that stops to ask for a click is ended after two minutes.

<Warning>
  A shortcut you built can do things Pomeroy will not do itself, like sending a
  message. That power is yours, set up in the Shortcuts app, and Pomeroy only
  starts the shortcut you name.
</Warning>