Spotlight — the final Sal mile

“The final Sal mile: should eventually work from Spotlight.” Every script in this repo should be one ⌘-Space away.

There are exactly 5 ways to make automation reachable from Spotlight on macOS.

Path 1: `osacompile` to `.app`

Compile any .applescript to a standalone .app bundle. Spotlight indexes every .app automatically via Launch Services.

osacompile -o /Applications/AppleToolbox/Apple-Workflows/Music-PlayPause.app \
  scripts/workflows/music/music-playpause.applescript

mdls -name kMDItemContentType /Applications/AppleToolbox/Apple-Workflows/Music-PlayPause.app
# → "com.apple.application-bundle"

Critical gotcha: the compiled .app must have a CFBundleIdentifier in its Info.plist for Spotlight to index it. osacompile does NOT add one by default. Fix:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :CFBundleIdentifier string com.example.my-script" \
  MyScript.app/Contents/Info.plist

bin/spotlight-export.sh does this automatically for every workflow script under scripts/workflows/. Naming matters: Music-PlayPause.app becomes searchable as “Music PlayPause” — Spotlight matches any word.

Path 2: Shortcuts (best for App Intents width)

Every Shortcut is automatically Spotlight-indexed. Zero extra steps.

shortcuts run "Music PlayPause"   # CLI
# ⌘-Space → "Music PlayPause" → ⏎  # Spotlight

bin/shortcut-gen.py emits signed .shortcut files; bin/batch-import.sh imports them all.

Path 3: `osascript` shebang

A plain .applescript with #!/usr/bin/osascript and chmod +x is runnable from CLI, but not Spotlight (Spotlight indexes apps, not arbitrary executables). Use Path 1 or wrap in a Shortcut.

Path 4: Automator workflows

Save as Application in Automator. Same Spotlight indexability as Path 1. See Automator vs Shortcuts for when each fits.

/tag-app generates one Tag <Name>.app per Finder tag the user has actually used. Lives at /Applications/AppleToolbox/Apple-Tag-Apps/. Spotlight indexes them all. ⌘-Space → “Tag process” → ⏎ tags the current Finder selection.

Two gotchas worth their own write-up

APFS Spotlight indexing

Some Mac users have Spotlight refusing to index their /Applications/AppleToolbox/ folder because of APFS metadata corruption. Fix: sudo mdutil -E / to rebuild the entire root index. See the full diagnosis in the source page.

TCC + `mdimporter`

After installing a new mdimporter, you may need to grant Full Disk Access to mdworker_shared (the Spotlight indexing daemon). Symptoms: new file types don’t show up in search even though mdimport <file> works fine standalone.

What lives where

Path	Compiled to	Indexed by
`scripts/workflows/finder/*.applescript`	`/Applications/AppleToolbox/Apple-Workflows/Finder-*.app`	Spotlight (via Path 1)
`bin/build-tag-app` output	`/Applications/AppleToolbox/Apple-Tag-Apps/Tag-*.app`	Spotlight (via Path 1)
`bin/shortcut-gen.py` output	Shortcuts.app	Spotlight (via Path 2)
`bin/build-*-shortcut.py` files	Specific signed `.shortcut` files (Quick Actions etc.)	Spotlight + Shortcuts.app (Path 2)

Source-of-truth: wiki/concepts/spotlight-automation.md — full 5 paths, APFS bug walkthrough, TCC fix, the Sal-rule reasoning.
Sal’s principle: Sal corpus → WWSD — “Spotlight is the canonical launch surface; if your tool isn’t there, the user can’t find it.”