Chapter 07 · Reference
7.7Workflow automation
Build workflows that find and organise photographs, save versions and export files with Apple Shortcuts.
Devices. Open Shortcuts on Mac, iPhone or iPad, add an action and search for Frames. Workflows start in Shortcuts or another application that runs a shortcut. On Mac, Automator, Finder Quick Actions and scripts can run named shortcuts. Keep Frames available while a workflow processes photographs; permissions, original access and saved resources belong to each device.
Your first workflow. Add these five actions in order:
- Find Photographs: set the minimum rating and any collection filter.
- Get Photographs from Page: use the query page from Find Photographs.
- Export Photographs: pass those photographs and choose an export preset.
- Get Files from Automation Result: use the export result.
- Shortcuts’ Save File: choose the destination for the returned files.
For a contact sheet, use Make Contact Sheets in step 3. Larger searches use Get Next Photograph Page to fetch further pages of the same query. Use Get Failed Item Count and an If action before handing results to another application. A batch can finish with some photographs successful and others failed.
Action reference.
| Actions | Input and output |
|---|---|
| Find Photographs, Get Photographs from Page, Get Next Photograph Page, Get Selected Photographs | Find returns a query page; extract photographs before passing them to another action. Request the next page for larger selections. Selected photographs come from a single open Frames window. |
| Get Photograph Details, Set Rating, Set Verdict, Set Caption, Add Keywords, Remove Keywords, Replace Keywords | Read metadata or change the supplied photographs. Rating 0 clears the rating; Replace Keywords replaces the entire list. |
| Find Collections, Create Collection, Create Collection Folder, Rename Collection, Move Collection, Remove Collection, Remove Collection Folder | Choose the Frames or Photos backend. Removal requires confirmation; remove a folder’s children first. |
| Add Photographs to Collection, Remove Photographs from Collection, Reorder Collection Photographs | Pass a collection and an ordered photograph list. Manual ordering belongs to Frames collections. |
| Get Versions, Create Version, Duplicate Version, Rename Version, Select Version, Remove Version | Pass the photograph or version to work on. Removing a selected version selects its surviving neighbour; ORIGINAL is preserved. |
| Find Looks, Find Export Presets, Find Sources | Find saved resources by name on this device. |
| Apply Look, Apply Treatment, Auto Tone | Save a new version by default. Updating the selected version is an explicit save policy. |
| Set Develop Adjustment, Reset Adjustments, Set Crop | Without photographs, change the photograph open in Develop; one Undo takes it back. With photographs, edit each one’s selected version; a photograph on ORIGINAL gains a version first. |
| Preflight Processing | Check inputs, downloads and planned version writes before processing; returns a JSON file. |
| Export Photographs, Export Versions, Make Contact Sheets, Process Image Files | Return an automation result. Extract its files and save them; Process Image Files can also receive a look or a source treatment. |
| Get Files from Automation Result, Get Photographs from Automation Result, Get Versions from Automation Result, Get Automation Report, Get Failed Item Count, Get Automation Error Codes, Get Changed Item Count, Get Collections from Automation Result, Get Job from Automation Result | Extract typed outputs or a report for the next step. Use the failure count in an If action before continuing. Stable machine error codes and counts can drive If or Repeat actions. |
| Add Folder Source, Refresh Source | Add a chosen folder source or refresh an existing source. File access must be granted on this device. |
| Start Export, Start File Processing, Start Treatment Job, Get Job, Wait for Job, Get Job Result, Get Job Report, Cancel Job, Retry Failed Items | Start a job, inspect or wait for it, then obtain its result or JSON report. Retry submits failed items only. |
| Restore Automation Changes | Restore supported Frames metadata changes while the affected fields still match the recorded change. Collection and version changes require manual recovery. |
Library actions. Find photographs and read their metadata, manage ratings, verdicts, keywords and captions, and organise collection membership. Workflows can create, rename and remove collections and saved versions, select a version, and apply a look, a treatment or auto tone. Collection operations follow the same Frames and Apple Photos permissions as the app. Removing a collection or version preserves photographs and originals. The catalogue’s ORIGINAL rule still applies; finish pending edits before changing a photograph’s version from a workflow.
Develop adjustments. Set Develop Adjustment takes a control, such as Exposure or Temperature, and a value; with Relative on, the value is added to the current one. A value outside the control’s range for that photograph stops the action. Reset Adjustments returns one control, or every control, to its default, and Set Crop sets an aspect ratio, a straightening angle or both; a free aspect needs an angle. With no photographs, an action changes the photograph open in Develop in the window in front as its control would, and one Undo takes it back; on iPhone and iPad, Frames comes to the foreground first. With photographs, the action runs as a job, like Apply Look: it edits each one’s selected version, and a photograph on ORIGINAL gains a new version first. An edit that changes nothing is reported as unchanged. A photograph whose original is not on the device needs Allow original downloads. Tone curves, the colour mixer, colour grading and masks stay with their tools in Develop. Frames rebuilds the edited previews later unless Render previews is on. Restore Automation Changes does not reverse adjustments; remove the version or undo the edit in Develop. A photograph in Apple Photos is published only through the publishing choice Develop already asks.
Files and saved edits. File processing accepts images supplied by the workflow and returns exported files without adding the inputs to the library. Use library development actions when you want to save changes. Choose the version and write behaviour explicitly when updating an existing version. Use the export settings or a saved preset appropriate to the next application. Shortcuts’ Save File, Share and other actions handle the returned files.
Workflow controls. Find Photographs can filter by source, collection, verdict, rating, keywords, capture dates, RAW, monochrome and edited state, with an explicit sort order. Export and file-processing actions accept a preset and optional overrides for format, quality, colour space, long edge, location metadata and filename template. Treatment transfer can choose its parts; file processing can also apply auto tone.
Downloads and repeat runs. Original downloads are off by default. When enabled, the default limits are 200 originals and 4,000,000,000 estimated bytes; adjust the limits deliberately. Allow interaction controls whether an action may request the foreground. A workflow running without interaction must already have the access and foreground state it needs. Request identifier lets a workflow reuse a recorded request after an interrupted call. Use Continue on error when you want the result and report for every attempted item. A saved edit can succeed with a preview warning; inspect the report before retrying it.
Access and results. Grant Photos access and access to incoming files on the device running the shortcut. Enable original downloads explicitly when a workflow needs photographs held in iCloud; local-only work reports unavailable originals. Exported files are temporary handoff files: save them in the same workflow. An export to an explicit folder returns an independent temporary copy for subsequent Shortcuts actions. Job actions let a workflow inspect progress, obtain results and request cancellation. Cancellation preserves completed work. Read each item’s status before retrying a batch, especially when it changes library metadata.
On iPhone and iPad, processing actions open Frames. Keep it in the foreground until the work completes; execution can pause when the system suspends the app.
Mac scripts and Automator. Create a shortcut named Frames Process Files that receives files, processes them and ends with Save File. An Automator Folder Action or Finder Quick Action can pass files to that shortcut. In an Automator Run Shell Script action, choose Pass input: as arguments and use:
shortcuts run "Frames Process Files" -i "$@"The name must match the shortcut you created. Quote file arguments and save results in a separate destination folder so a Folder Action does not process its own output. Terminal scripts use the same named-shortcut route. Set up source, look, preset and destination choices again when moving a shortcut to another device; an unavailable library item or file grant needs a local choice.
See Export, Organising the library, Versions and Looks.