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Shortcuts Automation

Fox integrates with the Shortcuts app on Mac and iOS, letting you automate issue workflows without opening Fox. Create issues from a lock-screen button, batch-update statuses after a sprint review, wire Fox into a Safari extension — anything you can do through Shortcuts can now touch Fox.

Fox Shortcuts on macOS

Fox Shortcuts on macOS

Available Actions

Fox exposes Shortcuts actions in two categories — one for Issues and one for Locations (versions and milestones). Every project-specific attribute — status, priority, type, tags, resolution — is picked from the target project's own set when you build the shortcut, so you never have to hard-code names.

Issues

Create Issue

Create a new issue in a project. The title and project are required; everything else is optional:

  • Title (required)
  • Project (required)
  • Location — A version or milestone in the project
  • Status
  • Priority
  • Type
  • Tags (multiple)
  • Subtasks (multiple)
  • Due date
  • Date opened
  • Estimate
  • Bookmarked
  • Details — The issue notes
  • Attachments — One or more files

This is the workhorse action — most Shortcuts that touch Fox use it.

Get Issues By Project

Retrieve a list of issues from a project. Filter by:

  • Project (required)
  • Location — A specific version or milestone
  • Open scope — Open only, closed only, or all
  • Sort order — Date opened, title, priority, and more
  • Ascending / descending

Use Get Issues By Project to pull a batch of issues into a shortcut that then processes them — for example, a weekly report that fetches every issue closed in the last seven days.

Edit Issues

Batch-edit a single property on one or more issues. Pair it with Get Issues By Project to fetch a set, then apply a change across all of them. Editable properties include:

  • Title, details, resolution details
  • Location (move to another version or milestone)
  • Status, type, priority, resolution
  • Tags
  • Subtasks
  • Attachments
  • Due date, date opened, date closed
  • Estimate
  • Bookmarked
  • Close and reopen

Edit operations support a modification type — set, append, prepend, add, remove, or remove all — so you can, for example, append a tag across a batch of issues without clobbering their existing tags.

Locations (Versions & Milestones)

Shortcuts can also manage a project's version and milestone hierarchy directly, not just the issues inside them.

Create Location

Create a new version or milestone in a project:

  • Name (required)
  • Project (required)
  • Location type (required) — Version or Milestone
  • Parent version — Optional. Nest a new milestone inside a version.

Get Locations

Retrieve a list of a project's versions and milestones:

  • Project (required)
  • Location type — Filter to just versions or just milestones
  • Include archived — Off by default

Move Issues to Location

Assign a batch of issues to a version or milestone. Pairs naturally with Get Issues By Project:

  • Issues (required) — From a previous action
  • Project (required)
  • Target location (required)

Edit Locations

Update a property on one or more versions or milestones:

  • Locations (required) — From a previous action
  • Property (required) — Name, archived, or parent
  • Updated name, updated archived, or updated parent

Example Workflows

Quick-Capture Bug Report

A one-tap shortcut that prompts for a title and creates a high-priority Bug issue in your main project. Put it on the iOS Lock Screen and you can file a bug in two taps.

Steps: 1. Ask for Input — "Bug description?" 2. Create Issue — Project: FOX, Title: the input, Type: Bug, Priority: High

Safari → Fox

Build a Shortcuts action that runs from the Safari share sheet, captures the current URL and page title, and creates an issue with the URL in the notes field. One-click issue creation from any webpage.

Weekly Close-Out Report

A scheduled shortcut that runs every Friday afternoon:

  1. Get Issues — closed in the last 7 days
  2. Repeat With Each — format each issue as a markdown bullet
  3. Send Message — post the list to a team chat

Batch Reschedule

After a sprint review, move every issue in a milestone that wasn't completed to the next milestone:

  1. Get Issues — location: v2.0, open only
  2. Edit Issues — location: v2.1

Where to Place Shortcuts

On iOS:

  • Home Screen — Add a Fox shortcut as an icon for one-tap access
  • Lock Screen — Include a shortcut in the Lock Screen widget for instant capture
  • Widgets — Multi-shortcut widgets for grouped actions
  • Share Sheet — Share from Safari, Notes, Messages, or any other app into a Fox-aware shortcut

On Mac:

  • Menu Bar — Pin shortcuts to the menu bar
  • Dock — Add a shortcut to the Dock as an app
  • Keyboard shortcuts — Bind any Shortcut to a global keyboard shortcut

Tips

  • Use a default project variable — Store your main project ID in a Shortcut variable so you don't have to pick it every time.
  • Combine with other actions — Shortcuts' real power is connecting Fox to other apps. Calendar events → issues, text detection → issues, GPT prompt → issues.
  • Test with throwaway issues first — Batch Edit Issues actions affect everything they match. Verify your filter before running against a real project.

See Also

  • URL Scheme — A lower-level alternative to Shortcuts for deep linking
  • CSV Import — Better choice for bulk one-time imports than Shortcuts
  • MCP Server — The AI-native alternative for more complex automation
  • Issues — What the actions above create and edit