Cherri – programming language that compiles to an Apple Shortuct

Posted by mihau 2 days ago

Cherri – programming language that compiles to an Apple Shortuct(github.com)

116 points | 20 comments

alin23 1 hour ago|

I've just used this extensively to build 200 Shortcuts for my event-based automation app on macOS [0], because some actions you simply can't do without Shortcuts: changing Focus Mode, toggling Accessibility functions like Color Filters, accessing the Private Cloud Compute model etc.

I also wrote about how Claude was able to basically learn the language from scratch and write those fully compilable Shortcuts for me [1] because it was mind boggling to me that an LLM can do that. Curiously, this is becoming more and more normal in my mind.

[0] https://lowtechguys.com/crank

[1] https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog/how-good-is-claude-really/#che...

duskwuff 7 minutes ago||

While it's not in quite the same product category, a name change might be in order; this is uncomfortably close to CHERI (cf. https://cheri-alliance.org/).

0x457 2 minutes ago|

Should we rename fruit as well just in case?

lemontheme 31 minutes ago||

Cool! As a professional programmer few things consistently succeed in making me feel inept like trying to build an Apple Shortcut

Ragingweb 11 minutes ago||

I built a small app to follow my infant son's feedings and diaper changes. Simply used the shortcuts get content of url to call the API rest endpoints. This is much better !

kbd 16 minutes ago||

What can you do on a Mac with Shortcuts vs AppleScript vs Hammerspoon?

alin23 7 minutes ago|

There are some things that are only available in Shortcuts because Apple gave the app entitlements to communicate with parts of the system that an AppleScript or other apps can't. Things like setting/getting the Focus Mode, changing some system settings like Airdrop Receiving, Color Filters, Background Sounds etc.

Also some apps export Shortcut actions that can run in-app code: for example my Lunar app has an action that can help fixing arrangement when monitors flip around [1]

It's much easier to implement a struct for a Shortcut, than exporting AppleScript sdef files or creating IPC command-line tools, so a lot of apps take this route for code that needs access to the memory of the running app.

[1] https://lunar.fyi/shortcuts#fix-monitor-arrangement

RationPhantoms 29 minutes ago||

Still confused on why there is no social component of this? What is the best place to find examples of actual useful Apple Shortcuts?

subhro 9 minutes ago||

Is this vibe coded? The README at least looks very LLM-ish.

simquat 1 hour ago||

Looks quite cool and I'd like to give a try. What is the main use case for compiling code to shortcuts? I ask because I'm working on a tool[0] that in a way does the opposite.

[0] https://breadboards.io

0x457 3 minutes ago|

What you're doing is visual programming. On its own there isn't anything wrong with it. However, specifically with Shortcuts it's not very pleasant for anything complex.

I had a full garden automation running on shortcuts, but it was extreme hard to maintain and improve due to "editor" being so bare bones.

_doctor_love 40 minutes ago||

Very cool! IMHO Apple Shortcuts will finally get the love they're due in the age of AI.

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