For the new Spotlight on MacOS, can I run any App Intent or does it have to be in an App Shortcut?
Asked on 06/13/2025
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In the new Spotlight on macOS, you can run actions from your app directly from Spotlight by adopting App Intents. This means that you don't necessarily need to have an App Shortcut for every App Intent to be run from Spotlight. However, App Shortcuts are a way to make your intents more discoverable and accessible across the system, including in Spotlight.
For an App Intent to be runnable directly from Spotlight, it must be properly configured with a parameter summary that includes all required parameters. This allows users to provide all necessary information directly in Spotlight to execute the action.
For more details, you can refer to the session Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents (11:48).
Get to know App Intents
Learn about the App Intents framework and its increasingly critical role within Apple’s developer platforms. We’ll take you through a ground-up introduction of the core concepts: intents, entities, queries, and much more. You’ll learn how these pieces fit together and let you integrate your app through Apple’s devices, from software features like Spotlight and Shortcuts to hardware features like the Action button. We’ll also walk through how App Intents is your app’s gateway to integrating with Apple Intelligence going forward.
Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents
Learn about how building App Intents that make actions available and work best with the new features in Shortcuts and Spotlight on Mac. We’ll show you how your actions combine in powerful ways with the new Apple Intelligence actions available in the Shortcuts app. We’ll deep-dive into how the new “Use Model” action works, and how it interacts with your app’s entities. And we’ll discuss how to use the App Intents APIs to make your actions available in Spotlight.
Bring your app’s core features to users with App Intents
Learn the principles of the App Intents framework, like intents, entities, and queries, and how you can harness them to expose your app’s most important functionality right where people need it most. Find out how to build deep integration between your app and the many system features built on top of App Intents, including Siri, controls and widgets, Apple Pencil, Shortcuts, the Action button, and more. Get tips on how to build your App Intents integrations efficiently to create the best experiences in every surface while still sharing code and core functionality.