Automation & Scripting

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Learn about scripting languages and automation frameworks available on the platform to automate repetitive tasks.

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Displaying an email in mail preview pane by message ID
Hi, I want to open an email message with AppleScript. Everything is working correctly, but in the Mail app, instead of focusing on targetMessage, it highlights the email after the target message. When I use: tell targetMessage to open the correct email opens in new window but the wrong email is highlighted in the Mail app list. tell application "Mail" activate set targetAccount to missing value repeat with anAccount in every account if name of anAccount is "AccountName" then set targetAccount to anAccount exit repeat end if end repeat if targetAccount is not missing value then set targetBox to missing value repeat with aBox in mailboxes of targetAccount if name of aBox is "MailboxName" then set targetBox to aBox exit repeat end if end repeat if targetBox is not missing value then set targetMessage to missing value set oneWeekAgo to (current date) - (7 * days) set filteredMessages to (every message of targetBox whose date received ≥ oneWeekAgo) repeat with aMessage in filteredMessages try if message id of aMessage is "MessageID" then set targetMessage to aMessage exit repeat end if end try end repeat if targetMessage is not missing value then if (count of message viewers) > 0 then set mailViewer to message viewer 1 else set mailViewer to make new message viewer end if tell mailViewer set selected mailboxes to {targetBox} delay 0.2 set selected messages to {targetMessage} end tell return "Found" else return "Message Not found" end if else return "Folder Not found" end if else return "Account Not found" end if end tell Why is this behavior happening?
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216
Mar ’25
AppIntent, should I delete previous donations to the system and how?
Hi, In my application I am donating AppIntent instances that I have to the system using the donate() API. I recently came across this article that talks about deleting donations but it does not mention how to handle AppIntent instances. I am wondering when working with dynamic AppIntents (with different properties that can change in the future), should I be worried about "outdated" donated AppIntent instances? And if yes how can I delete previously donated AppIntent instances.
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199
Mar ’25
Difficulties with Get Contents of URL
I’ve created several shortcuts that tell me the stock price of a given company. The shortcut queries Yahoo Finance using Get Contents of URL, with the URL https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TICKER SYMBOL/, for example https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PLTR/ for Palantir or https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/ for Apple, etc. Then it uses RegEx to parse out the numbers which it then formats and displays in a notification. Simple. It works great for several stocks, but for some reason, it does not work correctly for Palantir. It shows an older “previous close” price. Oddly, when I go to the website myself, it shows me the current stock price. So for today Mar 21 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PLTR/ shows me $90.96 (correct) but the shortcut, via Get Contents of URL, shows $87.39 (incorrect). This $87.39 price is listed further down in the page as a "previous close” price. I don’t get it. Here is a link to my Palantir shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/edea6ee0261245f49b078efc74d632dd Here is a link to my Apple shortcut: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/54a416393203432aa356fe76373e3f8b So the question is, why does Get Contents of URL show an old stock price but when I go to the site myself, it shows the correct stock price … and only for Palantir? I have about six shortcuts running correctly. Palantir is the only one that does not work. Been banging my head on this one for weeks. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you, Rob
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52
Mar ’25
NSUserActivity in application(_:continue:restorationHandler:) not recognized as INStartCallIntent
Hello, experts! I'm working on a VOIP application that handles audio calls and integrates with CallKit. The problem occurs when attempting to redial a previously made audio call from the system's call history. When I try to handle the NSUserActivity in the application(_:continue:restorationHandler:) method, it intercepts the INStartAudioCallIntent instead of the expected INStartCallIntent. Background Deprecation Warnings: I'm encountering deprecation warnings when using INStartAudioCallIntent and INStartVideoCallIntent: 'INStartAudioCallIntent' was deprecated in iOS 13.0: INStartAudioCallIntent is deprecated. Please adopt INStartCallIntent instead. 'INStartVideoCallIntent' was deprecated in iOS 13.0: INStartVideoCallIntent is deprecated. Please adopt INStartCallIntent instead. As a result, I need to migrate to INStartCallIntent instead, but the issue is that when trying to redial a call from the system’s call history, INStartAudioCallIntent is still being triggered. Working with Deprecated Intents: If I use INStartAudioCallIntent or INStartVideoCallIntent, everything works as expected, but I want to adopt INStartCallIntent to align with the current iOS recommendations. Configuration: CXProvider Configuration: The CXProvider is configured as follows: let configuration = CXProviderConfiguration() configuration.supportsVideo = true configuration.maximumCallsPerCallGroup = 1 configuration.maximumCallGroups = 1 configuration.supportedHandleTypes = [.generic] configuration.iconTemplateImageData = UIImage(asset: .callKitLogo)?.pngData() let provider = CXProvider(configuration: configuration) Outgoing Call Handle: When making an outgoing call, the CXHandle is created like this: let handle = CXHandle(type: .generic, value: callId) Info.plist Configuration: In the info.plist, the following key is defined: <key>NSUserActivityTypes</key> <array> <string>INStartCallIntent</string> </array> Problem: When trying to redial the audio call from the system's call history, the NSUserActivity received in the application(_:continue:restorationHandler:) method is an instance of INStartAudioCallIntent instead of INStartCallIntent. This happens even though INStartCallIntent is listed in NSUserActivityTypes in the info.plist and I want to migrate to the newer intent as recommended in iOS 13+. Device: iPhone 13 mini iOS version 17.6.1
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206
Mar ’25
Dynamic parameters in shortcuts
I need to have a dynamic parameter for Shortcuts, so a person can say something like Hey Siri, order a pizza with The parameter code in the appIntent is @Parameter(title: "Title") var itemName: String In the Shortcut I use: AppShortcut( intent: NewItemIntent(), phrases: [ "order \(\.$itemName) using \(.applicationName)" ], shortTitle: "Order Item", systemImageName: "sparkles" ) When I call it "hey Siri, order pizza using ***" where pizza should be passed via the parameter then handed off to the appintent. However, it ignores the spoken parameter in lieu of putting up a dialog asking "What's the name?" I can say "pizza" and it now works. How can I pick up the parameter without having to go to that second step as the code implies?
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Apr ’25
Improving And Scaling App Intent Support
Platform and Version iOS Development Environment: Xcode 16.2.0, macOS 15.3 Run-time Configuration: iOS 18.3, 17.x Description of Problem We have started migrating some of the app’s core functionality over to App Intents. Our first release of App Intent support focused on two settings a user can modify on their Bose products, Audio Modes and Immersive Audio, giving users the ability to modify these settings via Siri and shortcuts. The implementation uses two separate shortcuts for each setting type, with each shortcut supporting a single phrase for Siri each: “Change my Bose mode to ” and “Change my Bose immersive audio to ”. Each shortcut uses their own App Intent, and each App Intent has support for optionally providing both a product and a setting when performing the intent. Failing to provide a device, which happens when the intent is performed via Siri, simply auto selects a currently connected Bose product. Failing to provide a setting, like in cases where a user says “Change my Bose ” without providing a setting will simply have Siri confirm the setting the user wants to change before changing the setting. We are using AppEntity to identify a Bose product for both App Intents. Because the App Intent for the Audio Modes setting has a larger number of supported values (up to 15 maximum), we are also using AppEntity to identify these settings. We are using AppEnum to identify available settings for the Immersive Audio App Intent, as only 3 static values are supported. Our original implementation of App Intent support had quite a few phrases supported for each shortcut. We had explicit support for direct synonyms of the verb “Change” in other phrases, supporting words like “Switch” and “Set”. We also had support for words that are like the word “Change”, but not directly related, like the word “Toggle” for instance. We also had support for phrases with or without the setting in each phrase. However, early on we had a lot of trouble with phrase detection with Siri. Siri had a hard time identifying what shortcut was being requested, as well as not being able to identify what settings the user was providing for the setting parameter of each App Intent. While researching potential fixes for this issue, we found a response to a thread in the Apple forums (https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759909) that seemed to indicate that Siri phrase recognition was very much an aggregate process. With the total number of phrases supported combined with the available settings for each phrase further compounding the total number of phrases Siri needs to learn to recognize for each shortcut. So, to hopefully improve Siri phrase detection, we added logic to limit the amount of Audio Mode settings supported based on what Audio Modes the user had setup on their Bose products. But, more importantly, we limited the number of explicit phrases supported for each shortcut to just a single phrase. In our testing, not only did this improve phrase recognition, but support for synonyms like “Set” or “Switch” seemed to implicitly still be recognized by Siri. The issues we ran into with Siri phrase detection above has us a bit concerned about scaling App Intent support to other settings and features for our products in the future. Our app supports the ability to modify a large number of settings on their Bose products, with support constantly expanding to new products as they are released. Our roadmap for App Intent support was initially very ambitious, supporting much more than just the two settings mentioned above. But our initial experience with App Intents has us tapering our expectations a little bit as far as how much can be supported in total for App Intents. One thing we also noticed is less than optimal display of default shortcuts in the Shortcuts app. The default shortcuts appeared like so, with shortcuts displayed based on available settings fro each shortcut: However, we could not find a way to indicate to users that one particular section pertained specifically to the Audio Mode setting and the other to the Immersive Audio setting. The only information the user has to make this determination for themselves is the available settings (or shortcuts) for each. This may not be immediately clear to a new customer who might be using one of our products for the first time. This display of default shortcuts in the Shortcuts app has us wondering if our shortcuts implementation is what is intended as far as support for the Shortcuts app is concerned. We did survey default shortcuts displayed by other third-party applications and they mostly dealt with navigation with a single section containing default options clearly indicating where the user can navigate with a shortcut. We couldn’t find an example of an application supporting the ability to change different setting types, with each setting type having their own available values for each. So, to summarize the questions we have concerning App Intent support: What can we do with our App Intents and Shortcuts implementation to guarantee optimal performance with Siri? What is an ideal number of phrases to support for each Shortcut. What limitations should we be placing as far as the total number of available settings for each Shortcut. Are there phrases that might work better than others for what we’re trying to achieve with App Intent support? i.e. Is “Change my Bose mode” or “Change my Bose immersive audio” a good phrase to use for this kind of functionality? Or should we be using different verbs or wording? Assuming optimal support of each Shortcut above. What is a reasonable expectation as far as how many different supported shortcuts we can scale to support at the same time. One issue we ran into early on was Siri confusing one shortcut with the other and triggering the wrong App Intent at times. While this was ultimately resolved, this outcome seems much more likely the greater the number of individual shortcuts supported. Are there any recommendations on how to display these App Intents to customers as far as default shortcuts in the Shortcuts app is concerned? Is what we currently display for default shortcuts in the Shortcuts app what was initially intended for third party support for App Intents? If what we are currently displaying is expected, would it be possible to support the ability to provide additional context to each section of default shortcuts displayed? We would like to indicate to the user that one set of shortcuts pertains to the Audio Modes settings, and the other to Immersive Audio. Something along the lines of a section header like some of the first-party apps use. Are there any recommendations or tips for supporting App Intents, particularly phrases for Siri, in other languages?
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148
Apr ’25
/usr/bin/shortcuts no longer works in 14.7.5 (23H527) ?
I've been using /usr/bin/shortcuts for various tasks (eg. Quicksilver uses it to list and run shortcuts), and after updating from 14.7.4 to 14.7.5 the tool gets killed on startup. Eg. here is what it looks like in my shell: ❯ shortcuts list zsh: killed shortcuts list (And this is regardless of whether I have "full disk access" or "developer tools" toggled on or off for iTerm.) Looking at system logs it seems like the binary is missing an entitlement, which causes MACF / Gatekeeper to throw a fit: 2025-04-12 18:38:48.847576 kernel: mac_vnode_check_signature: /usr/bin/shortcuts: code signature validation failed fatally: When validating /usr/bin/shortcuts: in-kernel: com.apple.shortcuts.ShortcutsCommandLine disallowed without com.apple.private.security.restricted-application-groups 2025-04-12 18:38:48.847582 kernel: validation of code signature failed through MACF policy: 1 2025-04-12 18:38:48.847583 kernel: check_signature[pid: 2475]: error = 1 2025-04-12 18:38:48.847587 kernel: proc 95761: load code signature error 4 for file "shortcuts" 2025-04-12 18:38:48.847613 kernel: exec_mach_imgact: not running binary "shortcuts" built against preview arm64e ABI 2025-04-12 18:38:48.855481 syspolicyd: (Security) SecTrustEvaluateIfNecessary 2025-04-12 18:38:48.857970 syspolicyd: [com.apple.syspolicy.exec:default] GK evaluateScanResult: 2, PST: (path: /usr/bin/shortcuts), (team: (null)), (id: (null)), (bundle_id: (null)), 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0evaluateScanResult: 2, PST: (path: /usr/bin/shortcuts), (team: (null)), (id: (null)), (bundle_id: (null)), 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0 I used Time Machine to compare the binary's entitlements between 14.7.4 and 14.7.5, and looks like in 14.7.5 /usr/bin/shortcuts indeed is missing the com.apple.private.security.restricted-application-groups entitlement that 14.7.4 had. The old binary had these two entitlements that the new one doesn't: [Key] com.apple.private.security.restricted-application-groups [Value] [Array] [String] group.com.apple.shortcuts [String] group.is.workflow.my.app [String] group.is.workflow.shortcuts [Key] com.apple.security.application-groups [Value] [Array] [String] group.com.apple.shortcuts [String] group.is.workflow.my.app [String] group.is.workflow.shortcuts Is there a sensible workaround for this (and by "sensible" I mean something that'd allow me to keep using the tool)? (I already asked this on the support forums but I figured I might as well ask here too)
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Apr ’25
Proper way to create an AppleEvent record descriptor from NSDictionary
When using NSScriptCommand, is there any way to create an NSAppleEventDescriptor from an NSDictionary with arbitrary keys without using keyASUserRecordFields? Am I correct in thinking that this constant is deprecated? I ask because there is still active documentation using it. Is there another way to return a record where the keys aren't known at compile-time?
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80
Apr ’25
Parameter recognition on AppShortcuts invocation not consistent
While playing around with AppShortcuts I've been encountering some problems around getting the invocation phrase detected and/or the parameter get recognized after invocation phrase via Siri. I've found some solutions or explanations here in other posts (Siri not recognizing the parameter in the phrase & Inform iOS about AppShortcutsProvider), but I still have one issue and it's about consistency. For context, I've defined the parameter to be an AppEntity with it's respective query conforming to the EntityStringQuery Protocol in order to be able to fetch entities with the string given by Siri struct AnIntent: AppIntent { // other parts hidden for clarity @Parameter var entity: ModelEntity } For an invocation phrase akin to "Do something with in ", if the user uses the phrase with a entity previously donated via suggestedEntities() the AppShortcut get executed without problems. If the user uses a phrase with no parameter, like "do something with ", if the user gets asked to input the missing parameter and inputs one, it may or may not get recognized and be asked to input a parameter again, like in a loop. This happens even if the parameter given is one that was donated. I've found that when this happens the entities(matching string: String) function in the EntityQuery doesn't get called. The input can be of one word or sometimes two and it will not be called. So in other words entities(matching string: String) does not get called on every user parameter input Is this behavior correct? Do parameters have some restrictions on length or anything? Does Siri shows the user suggested entities when asked for entity input? It doesn't on my end. Additional question related to AppShortcuts: On AppShortcut definition, where the summary inside the parameter presentation is used? I see that it was defined in the AppIntentsSampleApp for the GetTrailInfo Intent but didn't find where it was used
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78
Apr ’25
Disambiguation for .system.search AppIntent
I'd like to display a list of items to disambiguate for a fulltext search intent. Using the Apple AppIntentsSampleApp, I added TrailSearch.swift: import AppIntents @AssistantIntent(schema: .system.search) struct TrailSearch: AppIntent { static let title: LocalizedStringResource = "Search Trail" static let description = IntentDescription("Search trail by name.", categoryName: "Discover", resultValueName: "Trail") @Parameter(title: "Trail") var criteria: StringSearchCriteria func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ReturnsValue<TrailEntity> { if criteria.term.isEmpty { throw $criteria.needsValueError(IntentDialog("need value")) } let trails = TrailDataManager.shared.trails { trail in trail.name.contains(criteria.term) } if trails.count > 1 { throw $criteria.needsDisambiguationError(among: trails.map { StringSearchCriteria(term: $0.name) }) } else if let firstTrail = trails.first { return .result(value: TrailEntity(trail: firstTrail)) } throw $criteria.needsValueError(IntentDialog("Nothing found")) } } Now when I type "trail" which matches several trails and thus lets us enter the disambiguation code path, the Shortcut app just displays the dialog title but no disambiguation items to pick from. Is this by design or a bug? (filed as FB17412220)
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73
Apr ’25
AppIntent AppShortcuts How to get a Double returned for a parameter and how to use the resolvers?
Hello, I have two related questions: in this AppIntent: https://github.com/poml88/FLwatch/blob/moresimple/SharedPhoneWatch/AppIntents/AddInsulin.swift#L2 i am trying to work with are returned Double as the parameter. But it does not fully work, because there is a locale issue. in some languages the decimal point is a comme. If that is so, Siri returns 3,5 but the system does not use it as a double. How to solve that? or, she is returning five, not 5 and again. The system does not recognise the double. It seems Apple has some resolvers for this, for example: DoubleFromStringResolver. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appintents/resolvers But I cannot figure out how to use them are how to call that resolver. Can somebody help, please? Thanks.
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137
Jul ’25
Keynote broken video links after macOS 15.4.1 update
After updating to macOS 14.4.1 keynote can't find all the outside video links. I have over 15 keynote presentations that I use to show videos. I have over 1500 videos. If I manually replace each video, I lose all the settings (thumbnails, cropping, animations, etc.). That's 15 years of work lost! Apple engineers tell me there's no other solution but to replace the videos manually. I've tried creating scripts via AIs but none of them work. Does anyone have any ideas?
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63
May ’25
Siri Intent - Car Commands
Hi Community, I'm new on Siri intents and I'm trying to introduce into my App a Siri Intent for Car Commands. The objective is to list into the Apple Maps the Car list of my App. Currently I've created my own target with its corresponding IntentHandlings, but in the .intentdefinition file of my App, I'm not able to find the List Car Intent. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sirikit/car-commands Do I need some auth? Also I share my info.plist from the IntentExtension. Thank you very much, David.
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78
May ’25
LocalDictionary spelling adding words
Sorry if topic is not exact. I write Ainu in various Roman Latin scripts on English GUI Catalina ,Text Edit. The Ainu words are similar to English ex. 'an' in Ainu is 'exist' ,Ainu Language exists 'Ne Ainu itak an ',so spell checker will not red dot many words also some Ainu words look like other foreign words. I open LocalDictionary and find it blank ,so I open TextEdit and open show spelling grammar 100 words out of 200 are red dotted !the others are not learned, so I press' learn' and it skips to some words not Allan after 100 it stops ,then I go to LocalDictionary and see all those words alphabetical order ,! great ! but what about the rest ? why does select half of the words and /part/ of a phrase/ 'Itak a-e-yay-/han-nok-kar-a' = to study language by oneself.
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88
May ’25
AppleScript access to "Show on all Spaces" Wallpaper setting
I am creating scripts to automatically switch the wallpapers on my multiple displays. System Events exposes almost all of the options accessible in the Wallpapers pane of system settings, but not the option to "Show on all Spaces". I want to add that option to the following script: tell application "System Events" set intervalSeconds to 900.0 set wpDir to POSIX file "/Path/to/Folder/" set picture rotation of every desktop to 1 set random order of every desktop to true set pictures folder of every desktop to wpDir set change interval of every desktop to intervalSeconds do shell script ("killall Dock") end tell Also, the foregoing script does not seem to successfully set the interval value, although it does not throw an error. Not sure why that does not work. Any thoughts or insights would be welcome. Thank you
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136
May ’25
Shortcuts: Invalid action metadata
I have a habit tracker app that uses App Intents and Shortcuts. The app uses SwiftData to persist data, just in case that's important. One of the shortcuts serves to log habits. However, when the app has been in the background for a good while (over an hour or so), that particular shortcut always fails when I try to run it in the Shortcuts app with the system error "Invalid action metadata" caused by "a bug in the host app". The app has a total of 9 shortcuts, and it's just this one particular shortcut that seems to be failing – the others continue to run without any issues even after the app has been in the background for a long time. The app intent/shortcut that is problematic is the one called HabitEntryAppIntent. For example purposes, I've also included one of the non-problematic intents in the code snippet below called HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent. Both of these intents have one @Parameter value of type HabitEntity. I'll post code snippets in the replies because the character limit is not large enough to include them here, or view them in this GitHub gist: Code snippets on GitHub I've tried everything I can think of whilst debugging, but none of the following fixed the error: Removed all usage of @MainActor and mainContext by replacing the ModelContext used in perform() with a locally created property. Removed all usage of static shared properties like Calendar.shared and ModelContainer.shared and replaced them with local properties. Removed all non-essential code such as the code for context.undoManager and WidgetManager.shared.reload(.all) and really striped it all down to the absolute essentials. Reduced the number of shortcut phrases in the problematic shortcut because there was perhaps too many (>10) originally. You might have noticed that the perform() method in the problematic intent manipulates the database whilst the non-problematic intent only reads the database. Given that the two intents in the snippet above both have the same @Property(...) var habitEntity: HabitEntity values, I tried to swap the contents of the perform() methods over to see what would happen. And here's what's strange: When the perform() method from the problematic HabitEntryAppIntent is used in HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent, it works without any issues and successfully logs habits! And then when the perform() method from the non-problematic HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent is used in HabitEntryAppIntent it fails with the system error "Invalid action metadata". This suggests that the problem is not in the code that logs the habit entries but rather something is wrong with HabitEntryAppIntent itself. I also tried changing the metadata used in HabitEntryAppIntent and its shortcut. I copied all the metadata used in HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent (the title, description, parameterSummary etc) and pasted it into HabitEntryAppIntent. And did the same with the metadata in the shortcut (phrases, shortTitle etc) so that all the metadata used in HabitEntryAppIntent matched that used in HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent. However, the shortcut for HabitEntryAppIntent continued to fail. Thus, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the code in perform() because that code succeeds when used in another app intent. And, despite the "metadata" error message, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the metadata in the app intent because I've tried using metadata from the non-problematic intent but it still fails. I have watched all WWDC videos related to app intents and shortcuts, and looked through the developer forum for similar questions, but I'm completely stumped by this issue and why it's only affecting one of my shortcuts. Also worth mentioning is that the widgets in the app that log habits using the same app intent do not suffer the same issue; they continue to work even after the Shortcut has failed. Moreover, if I try running the problematic shortcut for HabitEntryAppIntent and see the system error message, then run the shortcut for HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent (which always succeeds), and then try running the HabitEntryAppIntent shortcut again, it then runs successfully on the second attempt. It seems that running HabitEntryCounterForTodayAppIntent fixes the issue, at least temporarily.
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140
May ’25