Using 📝Claude with 📝Apple Shortcuts turns Claude into an iOS/macOS automation target — reachable from 📝Siri, Home Screen, the Share Sheet, or the iPhone Action Button — by wiring Shortcuts to Claude's API via the Get Contents of URL action.

Apple Shortcuts is a visual automation app available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. It does not have a native Claude integration, but its Get Contents of URL action can POST to any HTTPS endpoint, which means it can call 📝Anthropic's Messages API directly. Every trigger surface Shortcuts exposes — voice, Focus mode, automation, share sheet, widget, Action Button — becomes a way to invoke Claude.

Why This Pattern Works

Shortcuts is the glue between Apple's trigger surfaces and anything with an HTTP endpoint. Claude has a stable HTTP endpoint. The integration is just a POST request with the right headers, a JSON body, and a parse step to pull the text out of the response. There is no SDK, no app, and no middleware required.

The practical result: Claude becomes a first-class Siri skill, a Home Screen icon, a share-sheet option on any selected text, and — most usefully on iPhone 15 Pro and later — a single physical button press away via the Action Button.

How to Build It

1. Get an Anthropic API key

Sign in at console.anthropic.com, create a key, and keep it handy. Shortcuts stores text in steps, so treat the key like any other credential — don't share the shortcut publicly without scrubbing it first.

2. Create a new shortcut

Open Shortcuts, tap the + button, and give it a name. "Ask Claude" is the default Siri-friendly choice — whatever you name it becomes the voice invocation phrase.

3. Collect the prompt

Add a Text action if you want a fixed prompt, or a Dictate Text or Ask for Input action if you want to prompt fresh each run. If triggering from the Share Sheet, use the Shortcut Input magic variable — that carries the selected text or URL into the prompt.

4. Add the Get Contents of URL action

This is the core step. Configure it:

URL: https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages
Method: POST
Headers:
x-api-key → your API key
anthropic-version → 2023-06-01
content-type → application/json
Request Body: JSON, with fields:
model → claude-opus-4-7 (or claude-sonnet-4-6 / claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 for speed)
max_tokens → 1024
messages → array with one object: { "role": "user", "content": <your prompt variable> }

5. Parse the response

The response is a JSON dictionary. Add a Get Dictionary Value action, set Key to content, then chain Get Item from List → First Item into another Get Dictionary Value with Key text. That extracts Claude's reply.

6. Do something with the reply

End with Show Result, Speak Text, Copy to Clipboard, Create Note, or pipe into another shortcut. This is where Shortcuts earns its keep — the reply is now a variable you can route anywhere iOS lets you route text.

Triggers Worth Wiring

Once the shortcut works, expose it from multiple entry points:

Siri — "Hey Siri, ask Claude" invokes the shortcut by name.
Home Screen — Add to Home Screen via the share button inside Shortcuts for one-tap access.
Share Sheet — In the shortcut's settings, enable "Use as Share Sheet" to run Claude against any selected text, URL, or image across iOS.
Automations — Trigger on time of day, arriving home, connecting to CarPlay, or opening an app (e.g., a morning briefing that asks Claude for the day's agenda from your calendar).
Widgets & Lock Screen — Shortcuts widgets run the shortcut on tap.
Apple Watch — Any shortcut runs from the Shortcuts app on watchOS.

The Action Button

On iPhone 15 Pro, 16 Pro, and later, the physical Action Button on the side of the device can be mapped directly to a shortcut. This is the fastest human-to-Claude path on iOS — no app launch, no tap, no "Hey Siri" wake word. Press and hold the button and Claude is listening.

To wire it: Settings → Action Button → swipe to Shortcut → pick your "Ask Claude" shortcut. For the most useful default, have the shortcut start with Dictate Text so pressing the button immediately opens a microphone, and end with Speak Text or a notification so the answer comes back without requiring a screen glance.

This is the same trigger pattern used to wire the Action Button into Slack for agent routing — the button becomes a programmable side channel into whatever agentic system is on the other end of the URL. Swapping the target from the Anthropic API to a custom endpoint is a one-line change. Which is to say: the Action Button is less a "Claude button" than a general-purpose trigger for your augmentation stack — and Claude is just the first endpoint worth pointing it at.

FAQ

Can Siri talk to Claude without Apple Shortcuts?

No. Siri has no native Claude integration. Shortcuts is the bridge — once the shortcut exists and is named something Siri-parseable, Siri invokes it by name.

Do I need Apple Intelligence for this to work?

No. This approach works on any device running iOS 14+ or macOS Monterey+, with or without 📝Apple Intelligence. You're calling Anthropic's API directly, not routing through Apple's on-device models.

Which Claude model should I pick?

For voice-triggered shortcuts where latency matters, use Claude Haiku (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) or Sonnet (claude-sonnet-4-6). For anything requiring reasoning depth — summarization, code, analysis — use Opus (claude-opus-4-7). The model string goes in the model field of the JSON body.

Is my API key safe inside a shortcut?

It's stored locally on device. The risk is if you share the shortcut via iCloud link — Shortcuts warns you before sharing, but scrub the key first by replacing it with a placeholder or storing it in a separate "credentials" shortcut that the main shortcut calls.

Can this trigger tool use or MCP servers?

Not directly through the Messages API call from a shortcut — tool use works but you'd have to handle the tool-call loop inside Shortcuts logic, which gets unwieldy. For anything agentic, point the shortcut at your own backend that handles the loop and returns a final answer. See 📝Model Context Protocol (MCP) for the protocol-layer context.

📝Claude — reference memo on the Claude model family
📝Apple Shortcuts — reference memo on the Shortcuts app
📝Siri — how Shortcuts surface as Siri skills
📝Model Context Protocol (MCP) — the agentic protocol layer beyond one-shot API calls
📝How to Use Claude Mythos with Cursor — the same "wire Claude into your surface" pattern, for a code editor