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"
"ask me before you send emails to customers"
"get my approval before any purchase or deploy"

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

Requirements

activitysmith must be available in PATH.
The CLI must be signed in with activitysmith auth login, or have ACTIVITYSMITH_API_KEY 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 (activitysmith auth status says it is not signed in), run:

activitysmith auth login

It opens the user's browser and waits until they approve, then saves the sign-in for this machine. If no browser can open, it prints a URL for the user to visit. Never ask the user to paste an API key into chat.

Before the first send, check that a device is paired:

activitysmith devices list

If it prints No paired devices., give the user the App Store link it prints. Ask them to sign in to the app with the same account and allow notifications, then run devices list again.

Pick The Right Signal

Push Notification: one important event, completion, blocker, review request, or handoff.
Push Notification replacement: an earlier Push Notification is out of date and should be swapped, not stacked.
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.
Approval: the user asked to approve a kind of action before you do it.
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."

Replace A Notification When The Status Changes

Use this to update a Push Notification you already sent, for example when an incident you alerted on is resolved. Every push prints a Notification ID. Pass it with -R to swap the old notification for the new one on the Lock Screen and in history. The replacement is silent and goes to the same recipients.

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -t "🚨 checkout-api is down" \
  -m "500 errors on 62% of requests."
# Output includes: Notification ID: Xk3pQ8mV2nR7tL9wB4yZ

./skills/activitysmith/scripts/send_push.sh \
  -R "Xk3pQ8mV2nR7tL9wB4yZ" \
  -t "✅ checkout-api recovered" \
  -m "Error rate is back to normal. Incident resolved."

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."

Ask For Approval Before An Action

Use this when the user set a rule, such as "ask me before you send emails to customers" or "get my approval before any purchase". The rule applies every time. Ask right before each matching action:

activitysmith approval request "Send the pricing update email to 214 customers?" \
  --approve-label "Send" \
  --reject-label "Don't Send" \
  --timeout 100

Exit 0 (Approved.): do the action.
Exit 1 (rejected, timed out, or cancelled): do not do the action. Tell the user.
Exit 3 (Still pending): run activitysmith approval wait <approval-id> --timeout 100. Repeat until it exits 0 or 1.
Exit 2: the request failed. Report the error and do not do the action.

Write a question the user can answer from the Lock Screen. Use a concrete approve label, such as Send, Deploy, or Buy. For a shell command, pass the exact command with --command. If the action is no longer needed, run activitysmith approval cancel <approval-id>.

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

Store An API Key For CI

Use this when code that runs elsewhere, like a CI job, server, or cron job, should send Push Notifications or Live Activities. Pipe the key straight into the secret store so it never appears in chat or terminal output:

activitysmith keys create --name "GitHub Actions" --raw | gh secret set ACTIVITYSMITH_API_KEY

The first keys create opens the browser once. Ask the user to approve API key access. Name the secret ACTIVITYSMITH_API_KEY, and tell the user where you stored it. Never print or commit the key.

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.
Never do an action the user asked to approve without an Approved. result. One approval covers one action.
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.