Sky: Former Shortcuts Creators Unveil AI-Powered Mac Assistant

Shortcuts creators debut Sky, a new Mac app for AI assistance - 9to5Mac

Eight years ago, Apple acquired popular automation app Workflow, which later became baked into iOS as Shortcuts. Now, two years removed from their time at Apple, two creators behind Workflow and Shortcuts have a new app coming to macOS: Sky, which brings AI assistance to the Mac. Sky was unveiled today by two of its creators, Ari Weinstein and Conrad Kramer, both formerly of Apple after the company acquired Workflow and turned it into Shortcuts. Sky is an AI-powered assistant that can perform actions and answer questions for any window and any app open on your Mac. On the surface, it may look like any other launcher or LLM with a desktop app: you press a hotkey, and a tiny floating UI comes up. You can see the app in action via a teaser video in which Sky is used to message a group chat, schedule a calendar event, find bar recommendations, and more. Viticci's piece provides many more examples, screenshots, and early looks at the power Sky promises to offer. For example, Viticci highlights two core features: What sets Sky apart from anything I've tried or seen on macOS to date is that it uses LLMs to understand which windows are open on your Mac, what's inside them, and what actions you can perform based on those apps' contents. It's a lofty goal and, at a high level, it's predicated upon two core concepts. First, Sky comes with a collection of built-in "tools" for Calendar, Messages, Notes, web browsing, Finder, email, and screenshots, which allow anyone to get started and ask questions that perform actions with those apps. If you want to turn a webpage shown in Safari into an event in your calendar, or perhaps a document in Apple Notes, you can just ask in natural language out of the box. At the same time, Sky allows power users to make their own tools that combine custom LLM prompts with actions powered by Shortcuts, shell scripts, AppleScript, custom instructions, and, down the road, even MCP. All of these custom tools become native features of Sky that can be invoked and mixed with natural language. Anyone eager to try Sky can join a waitlist by submitting their email on the app's website. Sky's creators have a strong track record, and their next venture looks very exciting. It also feels like the kind of functionality Apple should be building into its platforms. I'm very interested to see where things go from here, and highly recommend checking out Viticci's full preview if you are too. Are you interested in using Sky? Let us know in the comments.

Shortcuts Creators Debut Sky, an AI Helper That Understands Everything on Your Mac's Screen

The creators of Shortcuts, an app that was acquired by Apple and deeply integrated into iOS and macOS, today unveiled their latest project, Sky. Sky provides an AI helper that can assist you with everything that you do on your Mac. Sky knows what apps you have open, what you're doing, and what actions are possible based on that information. Sky has built-in integrations for Calendar, Messages, Notes, Safari, Finder, Mail, and screenshots, so it is able to do things like make a calendar event for a dinner based on a conversation you've had, and look up an ideal place to go. Custom prompts and tools integrate natively with Sky, and the AI can take into account everything it's been given when performing tasks. MacStories' Federico Viticci was able to test Sky, and he said that it's an app that's going to "fundamentally change" his macOS workflow and the way he uses automation day-by-day. Viticci provided an example of the way Sky can simplify a task. Sharing a link to an article in Safari requires a multi-step process, but rather than going through the Share Sheet and sending a message, you're able to tell Sky to send a link and a summary to [person]. Sky gets the link, summarizes the webpage, and sends an iMessage to the specified person in natural language, all with one command. There are a wide range of tasks that Sky can complete thanks to deep integration with any app, including Finder. Sky works with either GPT 4.1 or Claude, but with its deep macOS integration, it is able to do more than one of the LLMs alone. The app supports creating custom tools with natural language, which makes it accessible to anyone. Sky is also able to use Claude to create customized tools using shell scripts and AppleScripts. Sky is set to launch this summer, and those interested can sign up to join the waitlist. Pricing has not yet been announced, but the app is expected to have a free component.