# Shortcut Source Helper | Shortcuts Library

> Helper for shortcut ⇐⇒ plist conversion and signing

## What this shortcut does

👉 Get Shortcut without Login
OS
Compatibility
macOS
Yes
≥ iOS 15
Yes
iOS 14
Yes
This is a helper for shortcuts that read and/or write shortcuts. It has two features:
Getting plist from shortcut
When no input is passed, it asks the user to choose a shortcut and returns its plist source.
Creating shortcut from plist
When a plist file is passed as input, it converts it into a shortcut.
The shortcut name follows the plist filename.
On macOS, it signs and opens the shortcut.
On iOS 15 or higher, it uses
Remote Sign
(beta) or a Mac via SSH to sign the shortcut.
On iOS 14, it creates and opens an iCloud link.
It provides common functionality to the following shortcuts (and reduces the need to re-enter SSH info in each shortcut on every update):
Shortcut Icon Picker (
https://​.co/​shortcut/​13324/
)
Shortcut Source Tool (
https://​.co/​shortcut/​5256/
)
Join Shortcuts (
https://​.co/​shortcut/​10038/
)
Dictionary Action Builder (
https://​.co/​shortcut/​4626/
)
Tinycut Builder (
https://​.co/​shortcut/​5217/
)
Let me know if you create one.
Remote Sign
It creates signed shortcuts remotely for iPhone/iPad. Please note that the service may be down sometimes for maintenance or Apple may block it for security reasons.
Setting up for SSH
iOS 15 or higher cannot sign shortcuts programmatically. However, if you have a Mac running macOS 12 Monterey or higher, this shortcut can send an unsigned shortcut and receive a signed one using SSH.
To set up SSH, please follow these steps:
Open ‘Shortcut Source Helper’ in edit mode.
Scroll down and find the ‘Run Script over SSH’ action near the end.
Enter ‘Host’ and ‘User’ info.
Tap ‘ed25519 Key’.
Copy public key and send to your Mac.
On your Mac, copy the key to clipboard and open Terminal.
Enter the following command and press return:
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
And this (the key needs to be in the clipboard before pressing return; this will be automatically done if the two machines are in the same local network AND have the same Apple ID signed in.):
pbpaste >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Quit Terminal and open System Settings.
Go to General → Sharing and turn on Remote Login.
You need to do this when downloading an update of this shortcut or changing your device. For security, do
NOT
share this shortcut with others because your SSH info can also be shared.
Thanks to
@0xilis
for the SSH idea.
Why é in shortcut name becomes e´
Because of the way the iOS/macOS file system handles file names, newly signed shortcuts with accents or diacritics in their names will have a different internal representation (technically, NFD as opposed to the default NFC; https://​unicode.org/​reports/​tr15/) while they look the same visually as the originals. For example, é
U+00E9
in shortcut names will become e
U+0065
+ ́
U+0301
after signing. This results in multiple shortcuts with seemingly same names.
To avoid the confusion,
Shortcut Source Helper
will deliberately decompose such characters (e.g., ‘ợ곰’ becomes ‘o ̛ ̣ᄀ‍ᅩ‍ᆷ’). This will affect shortcut names in many European languages as well as Korean, Vietnamese, etc. Please rename them after signing.

## Compatibility

iPhone, iPad, Mac

## Required apps



[View this page](https://shortcutlibrary.app/shortcuts/shortcut-source-helper)

[Download Shortcuts Library on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759494377)