macOS automation scripts

A collection of my macOS automation scripts (Alfred workflow, AppleScript and JXA). To compile, run:

make all

AlfredProcess

A mega-workflow for Alfred that encompasses all of my custom automations. See its own README for details. To build just the workflow, run:

make alfred-workflow

Then install the workflow via:

open target/Process.alfredworkflow

Hotkeys

I use an app I built called Anykey to assign hotkeys to some of the automations. The Anykey configuration file is automatically built from individual launchers.

Calendar

Jump to upcoming event

Type nowc into Alfred to get a list of current and upcoming events on your calendar and quickly open them in Calendar app.

Jump to relevant link

Type nowl into Alfred to get a list of links mentioned in current and upcoming events’ descriptions. Useful for quickly joining Zoom calls or jumping to time-blocked OmniFocus tasks.

Link to event

Insert a link to an event via Alfred search. Creates a bi-directional link via Hook app.

Contacts

Open in Alfred

Contacts app is awkward to navigate with the keyboard so this is convenient for quickly copying fields to clipboard.

Link to Contact

Insert a link to another contact via Alfred search. Creates a bi-directional link via Hook app.

Mail

Copy Mail message URL

Copies local URLs to messages in Apple Mail for quick referencing. URLs look like below and work both on macOS and iOS:

message://%3c20200219T233150.531069615694520168.noreply@letsencrypt.org%3e

Notes

Next / previous note

Annoyingly, there’s no shortcut in Notes to go to next or previous note. This script fixes it. Press ⌘+⇧+[ or ⌘+⇧+[ (like Safari tabs) to navigate between notes in sidebar.

Open Note URL / Copy Note URL

Apple Notes doesn’t provide URLs that work reliably across devices. I link to my notes using the following URLs format

shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=NoteURL&input=1582228319

This format works both on macOS (via these scripts) and iOS (via custom shortcuts) and relies on note creation date, which is extremely reliable and unlikely to change.

Generate Vocabulary Update

Whenever I see an unknown English word, I add it to a note in "🇬🇧English" folder. This script combine these separate notes into a single list that I can load into my space repetition software.

Move selected note(s)

Press a keyboard shortcut (e.g., ⌥+⇧+M) to move one or more selected notes to a chosen destination folder.

Jump to daily note

Type nown into Alfred to jump to a daily note in "🗓 Daily Notes" folder. Creates the note if doesn't exist.

Link to a note

Insert a link to another note via Alfred search. Create a bi-directional link via Hook app.

Selection to OmniFocus task

Experimental. Select any text in an edited note and turn it into a link to a new OmniFocus task. An additional bi-directional link between the note and the task is created via Hook.

OmniFocus

Link to an OmniFocus task

Insert a link to another OmniFocus task via Alfred search. Create a bi-directional link via Hook app.

Time block

Block an hour starting now on the “Time Blocks” calendar for the selected task or project. Back-link the task from the created event, then show it in Calendar. Can then use ⌃+⌥+Down / ⌃+⌥+Up to move the event around.

Safari

Open Highlighted Link

Safari doesn’t automatically focus elements highlighted via search by page (like Chrome or Firefox). However, it can be done with a bit of AppleScript. Read more on my blog.

Safari tab to OmniFocus

I could never figure out how to quickly add a Safari web page to OmniFocus (so it puts the page title into task and URL as a note) so I wrote this shortcut. Works for me!

Copy GitHub issue/PR link

GitHub allows linking to issues and PRs using the following short format: owner/repo#issue. I’m not aware of an easy way to quickly produce a link in this format. This script closes this gap for me.