ActivitySmith

Use this skill when the user wants an iPhone/iPad signal from an agent:

"notify me when done"
"send me a push notification"
"open this Shortcut when I tap the notification"
"open ChatGPT when I tap the notification"
"keep a metric, status, or progress visible while you work"
"show this metric on my Lock Screen"
"tell me if you get blocked"

The CLI is the tool. This skill is the intent mapping and recipe layer.

Requirements

activitysmith must be available in PATH.
ACTIVITYSMITH_API_KEY must be set in the shell or in skills/activitysmith/.env.
Use bundled scripts from ./skills/activitysmith/scripts/ when available.
Use direct activitysmith ... commands for simple one-liners or widget metrics.
Examples below assume the skill is installed at ./skills/activitysmith. If not, replace that prefix with the actual skill directory.

If auth is missing, tell the user to set:

export ACTIVITYSMITH_API_KEY="..."

Pick The Right Signal

Push Notification: one important event, completion, blocker, review request, or handoff.
Push Notification with redirection: tapping the notification should open a URL or run a specific Shortcut that already exists on the user's iPhone.
Push Notification with actions: long-press should show up to 4 buttons.
Live Activity: a real-time metric, operational state, or ongoing task should stay visible.
Widget metric: one stable value should stay visible after the task ends.
Channels: only specific teammates/devices should receive the update.
Tags: related Push Notifications and Live Activities should be grouped in history.

Default to a Push Notification for "notify me when done." Use a Live Activity when the user wants a real-time metric or state to remain visible, or when a long-running task needs progress updates.

URL And Action Rules

redirection / --redirection: opens when the notification is tapped.
open_url action: opens an HTTPS URL or runs a specific iPhone Shortcut with a shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=... URL.
webhook action: ActivitySmith backend calls an HTTPS endpoint.
media must be HTTPS and cannot be combined with actions.
Keep action labels short. iOS buttons have limited space.
Live Activities support one action button. Push Notifications support up to 4 actions.
Encode Shortcut names with spaces: Open Jarvis becomes Open%20Jarvis.

Recipes

Notify When Done

Use this when the user says "notify me when done" or when a long task completes.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Task finished" \
  -m "Your agent finished the task."

Notify With A Shortcut Tap Target

Use this when tapping the notification should run a specific Shortcut that already exists on the user's iPhone.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Task finished" \
  -m "Tap to run Test." \
  -r "shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Test"

Notify And Open ChatGPT On Tap

Use this when the user wants to continue with a coding agent from the ChatGPT app on iPhone. The Shortcut must already exist on the user's iPhone and should open the ChatGPT app.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Input needed" \
  -m "Tap to continue in ChatGPT." \
  -r "shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=OpenChatGPT"

Notify With Action Buttons

Use this when the notification should offer multiple follow-up actions.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Build failed" \
  -m "CI failed on main." \
  -a '[{"title":"Open Run","type":"open_url","url":"https://github.com/acme/web/actions/runs/123456789"},{"title":"Chat with Jarvis","type":"open_url","url":"shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Jarvis"}]'

Send A Rich Push With A Tap Target

Use this when the notification should preview an image, audio file, or video.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Preview ready" \
  -m "Open the generated screenshot." \
  -M "https://cdn.example.com/output/homepage.png" \
  -r "https://github.com/acme/web/pull/482"

Start, Update, And End A Live Activity

Use this when progress should stay visible.

activity_id="$(./skills/activitysmith/scripts/start_activity.sh \
  --title "Release deployment" \
  --subtitle "Preparing rollout" \
  --type "segmented_progress" \
  --steps 3 \
  --current 1 \
  --id-only)"

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/update_activity.sh \
  --activity-id "$activity_id" \
  --title "Release deployment" \
  --subtitle "Rolling out services" \
  --current 2

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/end_activity.sh \
  --activity-id "$activity_id" \
  --title "Release deployment" \
  --subtitle "Deployment complete" \
  --current 3 \
  --auto-dismiss 2

Add A Shortcut Button To A Live Activity

Use this when tapping a Live Activity button should run a specific iPhone Shortcut or open a local app through a Shortcut.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/start_activity.sh \
  --title "Deploying payments-api" \
  --subtitle "Running migrations" \
  --type "segmented_progress" \
  --steps 5 \
  --current 3 \
  --action '{"title":"Chat with Jarvis","type":"open_url","url":"shortcuts://run-shortcut?name=Jarvis"}'

Ask For Review Or Report A Blocker

Use this when the agent needs human input.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "Input needed" \
  -m "I hit a blocker and need your decision."

Update A Widget Metric

Use this when a stable metric should stay visible on the Lock Screen.

activitysmith metrics update deploy.success_rate 99.9

String values work too:

activitysmith metrics update prod.status healthy

App Icon Badge Count

Use this when a number should stay visible on the ActivitySmith app icon.

activitysmith badge 8333

Pass 0 to clear the badge. Use --channels to target specific team members or devices.

activitysmith badge 3 --channels "sales,customer-success"

Agent Behavior

Be sparse. Send signals at meaningful moments, not every small step.
Use clear human titles: "Task finished", "Input needed", "Build failed".
Mention the concrete next step in the message.
For Shortcut taps, use --redirection.
For Shortcut buttons, use an open_url action with a shortcuts:// URL.
For long-running progress, start one Live Activity, update it, then end it.
Add tags when the user wants related Push Notifications and Live Activities grouped in history.
Capture the Activity ID when using start/update/end.
Do not expose API keys, tokens, or secrets in titles, messages, action URLs, or webhook bodies.
If a command fails, report the error and do not retry repeatedly without a change.