automating-reminders

Automating Reminders (JXA-first, AppleScript discovery)

Relationship to the macOS automation skill

• Standalone for Reminders; reuse automating-mac-apps for permissions, shell helpers, and ObjC debugging patterns.
• PyXA Installation: To use PyXA examples in this skill, see the installation instructions in automating-mac-apps skill (PyXA Installation section).

Core Framing

Reminders works like a database: everything is accessed via specifiers (references to objects). Start by exploring the Reminders dictionary in Script Editor (switch to JavaScript view). Read properties with methods like name() or id(); write with assignments. Use .whose for efficient server-side filtering to minimize performance overhead. For creation, use constructors + .push() instead of make to avoid errors. Note: no native move command—use copy-delete instead. Priority: 1 (high), 5 (medium), 9 (low), 0 (none). Recurrence/location scripting is limited; use Shortcuts for advanced features.

Quickstart (create + alerts)

First, ensure Reminders permissions are granted (see automating-mac-apps for setup).

JXA:

try {
  const app = Application("Reminders");

  // Get list by name, or fall back to first available list
  let list;
  try {
    list = app.lists.byName("Reminders");
    list.name(); // Verify it exists
  } catch (e) {
    // Fall back to first available list
    const lists = app.lists();
    if (lists.length === 0) {
      throw new Error("No reminder lists found");
    }
    list = lists[0];
  }

  const r = app.Reminder({
    name: "Prepare deck",
    body: "Client review",
    dueDate: new Date(Date.now() + 3*86400*1000), // 3 days from now
    remindMeDate: new Date(Date.now() + 2*86400*1000), // Reminder 1 day before due
    priority: 1 // High priority
  });
  list.reminders.push(r);
  console.log("Reminder created in '" + list.name() + "'");
} catch (error) {
  console.error("Failed to create reminder: " + error.message);
  // Common errors: Permissions denied, list not found
}