Share Mac App HTML Button: Automating App Cards from Alfred
One of the realities of being a Mac user today is that many of the best apps you’ll discover aren’t on the Mac App Store. Developers often prefer to sell directly, avoiding Apple’s restrictions and revenue cut. That’s great for them (and often for us too, since it means more powerful software), but it leaves one problem: how do you share those apps elegantly in a blog post?
The Mac App Store gives you a tidy preview link and icon, but direct-purchase apps don’t. That means if I want to share an app like BBEdit or Audio Hijack, I’d normally have to dig into the app bundle, extract the icon, save it out, rename it, upload it, then write the HTML myself. Way too much friction.
So I built a Shortcut that does all of it for me. And because I run it as an Alfred File Action, all I have to do is select the app and hit the hotkey. The Shortcut takes care of the rest, turning any Mac app—App Store or not—into a polished HTML app card ready to paste into my Hugo blog.
⸻
How It Works
The Shortcut is split into two halves: finding the app’s details and icon, then uploading and generating the HTML snippet.
Extracting the app’s icon and name
It begins with an AppleScript that points at the selected .app bundle and looks inside its Info.plist for the CFBundleIconFile. If that value’s missing, the script gracefully falls back to the default AppIcon.
From there, it resolves the .icns file inside /Contents/Resources/, hands it back to Shortcuts, and Shortcuts grabs the actual image. At the same time, it extracts the app’s display name so I don’t have to type it myself later.
Handling the upload
With the icon in hand, the Shortcut preps the upload for GitHub. It checks if the icon is already in my site’s /static/images/App Icons/ folder using the GitHub API. If it doesn’t exist, the Shortcut converts the image to base64 and uploads it automatically.
This is especially handy for apps outside the Mac App Store, since I can’t rely on Apple’s CDN to serve up a clean app icon for me. Once uploaded, the image is there permanently, ready for reuse across future posts.
Assembling the HTML card
Finally, the Shortcut generates the Hugo shortcode I use for app cards. This snippet is copied straight to my clipboard, so I can paste it into BBEdit alongside the rest of the post. To help me fill in the missing link (since there’s no App Store URL), the Shortcut even runs a DuckDuckGo search for the app’s name + “mac app.” Nine times out of ten, that surfaces the official website instantly.
⸻
Why This Shortcut Matters
This automation is all about eliminating barriers. Whether the app is on the Mac App Store or sold directly through a developer’s site, I get the same consistent app card on my blog. No manual exporting, no renaming files, no repetitive uploads.
It also means I can highlight great indie apps without worrying about the extra effort. For someone who posts often, these saved minutes add up, but more importantly, they keep me in flow. When the tools fade into the background, the writing comes forward.
⸻
Alfred + Shortcuts = A Perfect Match
Running this Shortcut through Alfred is what makes it truly seamless. Instead of digging through Finder or hunting down app paths manually, I just select the app in Alfred, trigger the File Action, and let Shortcuts do the heavy lifting.
This combination works beautifully: Alfred is my quick-launch interface, and Shortcuts is the automation engine in the background. Together, they make sharing Mac apps—App Store or not—as easy as a keyboard command.
⸻
The Bigger Picture
This Shortcut fits into a larger workflow where I’ve automated nearly every part of blogging, from uploading screenshots to posting entire drafts to GitHub. Each piece removes just enough friction to make publishing easier and more enjoyable.
The end result is that I can write more, share more, and showcase apps without worrying about where they’re sold. The Mac App Store doesn’t have to be the gatekeeper for clean links and icons anymore.
Share Mac App HTML Button
