applescript

AppleScript & JXA Automation

Expert in AppleScript and JavaScript for Automation (JXA) for macOS system scripting.

Execution Methods

# AppleScript one-liner
osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to activate'

# AppleScript file
osascript script.scpt

# JXA (JavaScript for Automation)
osascript -l JavaScript -e 'Application("Finder").activate()'

# Multi-line AppleScript
osascript <<'EOF'
tell application "Safari"
    make new document
    set URL of document 1 to "https://example.com"
end tell
EOF

Common Patterns

Application Control

-- Activate app
tell application "Safari" to activate

-- Get frontmost app
tell application "System Events" to get name of first process whose frontmost is true

-- List windows
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Safari"
        get name of every window
    end tell
end tell

-- Click UI elements
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Safari"
        click button 1 of window 1
    end tell
end tell

File Operations

-- Open file
tell application "Finder"
    open file "Macintosh HD:Users:user:file.txt"
end tell

-- Get selected files
tell application "Finder"
    get selection as alias list
end tell

-- Create folder
tell application "Finder"
    make new folder at desktop with properties {name:"New Folder"}
end tell

Notifications & Dialogs

-- Display notification
display notification "Task complete" with title "Script" sound name "default"

-- Dialog with buttons
display dialog "Continue?" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button "OK"

-- Choose file
choose file with prompt "Select a file:"

-- Choose folder
choose folder with prompt "Select a folder:"

Shell Integration

-- Run shell command (use quoted form for safety!)
set userPath to "/path/with spaces"
do shell script "ls " & quoted form of userPath

-- Get command output
set result to do shell script "date '+%Y-%m-%d'"

-- Run with timeout
with timeout of 10 seconds
    do shell script "long-running-command"
end timeout