Most people who land on Omega’s Dev Tools didn’t go looking for it. Another shortcut on their phone asked for it during setup, and the trail led here. That’s the honest pitch. This is a backend library that other Shortcuts call into for common chores like update checks, settings storage, and hashing. If nothing on your device needs it, you can skip the install.

Inside the shortcut

Think of it as a shared toolbox sitting in your Shortcuts app. On its own it doesn’t do much for an end user. Other shortcuts query it in the background to pull a version number, save a preference, generate a random hash, prompt for authentication, or convert Markdown into rich text. Bundling these functions in one place keeps each individual shortcut smaller and spares authors from rewriting the same boilerplate. Once installed, it lives quietly until something calls it.

What you’ll need

The Actions app by Sindre Sorhus, free on the App Store. That’s the only extra dependency.

Installing it

Open the Actions app once from the App Store so iOS registers it.
Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open it in the Shortcuts app.
Review the actions inside, scroll to the bottom, and tap Add Shortcut to confirm.
Run it once so it can create its supporting folders in iCloud Drive.

Putting it to work

Running Omega’s Dev Tools directly is a quiet experience. From the main menu you can clear temporary data, trigger an update check across compatible shortcuts, and send feedback to the author. Everything else happens when another shortcut calls it. On first launch it creates four folders inside iCloud Drive at /Shortcuts/: _settings for saved preferences, _logs for activity history, In_use to track active calls, and _cache for temporary files. Leave those folders alone unless you’re cleaning up after uninstalling.

What it offers other shortcut authors

Updater + external updater: checks RoutineHub for a newer version of your shortcut.
Save/get settings: writes user preferences to /iCloud Drive/Shortcuts/_settings/ so they persist between runs.
Authentication prompt: gates sensitive actions behind Face ID or a passcode.
Internet check: confirms the device is online before a network call.
Markdown to rich text: converts Markdown strings into formatted output you can drop into Mail or Notes.

A note on maintenance

According to the author, version 1.4.0 is the final release and no new versions are planned. It was published as the previously unreleased beta with build security simplified, and the project is now MIT-licensed. The most substantive updates landed across 2023 and 2024, so treat it as a stable artifact rather than an actively developed tool.

FAQ

Why did some other shortcut tell me to install this?

Because that shortcut calls into Omega’s Dev Tools for chores like update checks or settings storage instead of reimplementing them. If nothing on your phone is asking for it, you can skip the install entirely.

Is the source something I can actually look at?

Version 1.4.0 ships under the MIT license, so every action is open for inspection. The Shortcuts preview screen will also list each step before you add it, which is the usual sanity check.