Pick a shortcut, get its plist source. Hand it a plist, get a working shortcut back. Shortcut Source Helper is a building block for other developer shortcuts, and it handles the fiddly conversion and signing steps they all need.
What it does
Shortcuts are stored as property lists, or plists, under the hood. Tools that read or write shortcuts have to convert between the two formats, and on modern iOS a shortcut built from a plist also has to be signed before it will import. This helper does both:
- Shortcut to plist. Run it with no input and it asks you to choose a shortcut, then returns that shortcut’s plist source.
- Plist to shortcut. Pass it a plist file and it turns it into a shortcut named after the file.
Signing depends on the platform. On macOS it signs and opens the new shortcut directly. iOS 15 and later can’t sign shortcuts programmatically, so there it signs remotely or through your Mac over SSH. iOS 14 gets an iCloud share instead, which the helper creates and opens.
Several other developer shortcuts rely on it, including Shortcut Source Tool, Shortcut Icon Picker, Join Shortcuts, Dictionary Action Builder and Tinycut Builder. Putting the shared code in one place also means you only enter SSH details once instead of in every tool.
Status note
The author announced in September 2026 that they’re pausing work on Shortcuts, with no set return date. Version 3.0 had just moved Remote Sign to the Shortcuty signing service, so that route may keep working independently, but expect no fixes for now. The Mac-over-SSH route doesn’t depend on any outside service.
How to install
Install the developer shortcut you want to use it with.
How to use it
Usually you won’t run it yourself; the tools above call it. To set up signing through your Mac (macOS 12 or later), open the helper in edit mode and find the Run Script over SSH action near the end. Enter your Mac’s host and user, generate an ed25519 key and copy the public key to your Mac. Then, in Terminal, create the ~/.ssh folder and append the key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. Finally turn on Remote Login under System Settings > General > Sharing.
Repeat that after each update of the helper or when you switch devices.
Use cases
- Reading the raw source of a shortcut to learn how it’s built.
- Generating shortcuts from plist files created by other tools.
- Signing shortcuts on iPhone using your own Mac rather than a third-party server.
Common questions
Can I share my copy with a friend?
Please don’t. Your SSH details live inside the shortcut, and sharing it shares them too.
Why did “é” turn into “e´” in a shortcut name?
It’s down to how iOS and macOS file systems store accented characters in filenames, which carries into newly signed shortcuts.
First time adding a shortcut from a website? Here's what each prompt means.
