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[–]FifiTheBulldog 5 points6 points  (2 children)

You can use the Get My Shortcuts action to retrieve a shortcut as a file, and then rename it so that its extension is .plist. A shortcut is just a glorified property list (plist), which can be represented as XML (there’s also a binary format that Apple uses a lot) or converted to JSON (not always easily, but shortcuts don’t have any values that would be incompatible with JSON). I like to convert shortcuts to JSON and then open them in Jayson.

At least, this is how it is on iOS 14 and below. It’s been really useful for inspecting and customizing shortcuts beyond what the Shortcuts editor can do. On iOS 15, Apple made it so that exporting shortcuts in that manner returns an encrypted file with a new format that I don’t believe has been cracked so far. However, if you upload a shortcut to iCloud, you can use the iCloud API to download the iOS 14-style plist for the shortcut, and then you can inspect it in the same way.

[–]MaurokNC[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Hmm, alrighty then. That’s kinda weird they’d do that with 15 though. Not change something that wasn’t broke (Apple is always good at doing that), but the encrypting it bit even though (if it works as you say) you can still get around the encryption. I wonder at what point it loses its encryption though? It’s gotta be when it is uploaded to the cloud from a 15 device because otherwise, that would make it so that a shortcut wouldn’t be backwards compatible. I’ll play around with that idea and report back if it doesn’t work. I’ve been on iOS15 now for longer than I can remember cause I actually got in on the dev beta builds (maybe where I’m also a dev beta for Microsoft too?). I know, I’m just a glutton for punishment. While some people enjoy being on the cutting edge of tech, I much rather prefer the bleeding edge 🤣

[–]Similar_Crew734 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they encrypted it so that you can’t change actions to do things that they don’t want you to do

[–]Normal-Tangerine8609 5 points6 points  (2 children)

If you are on iOS 15 you can view a plist or json of a shortcut like this: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0a89670ebc1c4da8a717bed79c0201b8

I would advise if you use the json to pretty print it to make it more readable or use another app. I sometimes use scriptable and quick look the dictionary QuickLook.present(…put json here…). Scriptable example: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/784f9f2bba7a4556a3905e6058b65f27

[–]bedwej 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Came here to say this still works in iOS 18!

[–]inquisitive-spaniard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is awesome - it works! Thanks