Automate with Shortcuts

2Do ships a set of native actions for the Shortcuts app on iPhone and iPad, built on Apple's App Intents. You can create, find, update, complete, move, and delete tasks; build alarm and repeat values; pause tags; and open tasks in the app, all by dragging actions together with no scripting.

Data actions work while 2Do is closed

Reading, creating, updating, deleting, alarm, recurrence, and value-building actions run in a separate extension, so they work while 2Do isn't open. A change made while the app is closed is waiting for you the next time you open it. Actions that open a task or a collection, or search inside 2Do, bring the app forward on purpose. The one setup requirement is to open 2Do at least once after installing or updating. Until then, data actions report "Open 2Do once to finish setup, then run this shortcut again."

Your First Shortcut

A one-minute capture shortcut:

1. Open the Shortcuts app and tap + to create a new shortcut.
2. In the action search field, type 2Do. Every 2Do action appears under the app's name.
3. Add Ask for Input (a built-in Shortcuts action) and set the prompt to "What needs doing?".
4. Add 2Do's Create Task and pass the Provided Input into its Title.
5. Optionally open Create Task and set a Destination list, a Due Date, a Priority, or Tags.
6. Give the shortcut a short, speakable name such as Capture It. Run it from the Shortcuts app, the home screen, the Action button, or by saying "Hey Siri, Capture It".

2Do actions take values from the actions above them and hand their results to the actions below.

The Action Catalogue

Every action appears in Shortcuts under 2Do.

Find and read

Action	What it does
Find Tasks	Finds tasks by title, list, and due date. Filter, sort, and limit the results. See Finding Tasks.
Get Tasks from Collection	Returns tasks from a Focus (All, Today, Starred, Scheduled, Done), a list, a list group, or a Smart List.
Get Subtasks	Returns the direct sub-tasks of a project or checklist.
Get Task by ID	Returns the task with a stable task ID, handy when another automation handed you an identifier.
Get Default Task Destination	Returns the list 2Do currently uses for new tasks.
Get Selected Tasks	Returns the tasks currently selected for batch editing in 2Do. This one reads the running app, so 2Do needs to be open.

Create and edit

Action	What it does
Create Task	Creates a task, project, or checklist with full 2Do scheduling and metadata. See Creating Tasks.
Update Task	Updates selected fields on a task. Omitted values remain unchanged.
Set Task Completion	Marks one or more tasks complete or incomplete.
Move Tasks	Moves tasks to a list, or into a project or checklist as sub-tasks.
Duplicate Task	Duplicates a task, project, or checklist.
Delete Tasks	Deletes one or more tasks. It always asks you to confirm first.
Set Task Action	Replaces or clears the action attached to a task.
Set Task Alarms	Replaces all sound alarms on a task. An empty list clears them.
Set Task Recurrence	Replaces or clears the repeat rule on a task.
Set Tag Paused	Pauses or resumes one of your tags, the Shortcuts equivalent of pausing a tag.

Value builders

Three helper actions build reusable values for the actions above without touching your data:

Action	What it builds
Make Task Alarm	A sound-alarm value for Create Task or Set Task Alarms.
Make Task Recurrence	A repeat value for Create Task or Set Task Recurrence.
Make Task Subtask	A sub-task value for Create Task.

Chain them: Make Task Alarm into Create Task, or Make Task Recurrence into Set Task Recurrence.

Show and open

Action	What it does
Open Task in 2Do	Opens 2Do with the task selected and revealed.
Open Collection in 2Do	Opens 2Do with a list, list group, Smart List, or Focus List selected.
Search in 2Do (iOS 18 or later)	Opens 2Do with a search ready to run, through the system search action wired to 2Do's search bar.
Show Tasks (iOS 26 or later)	Shows tasks in an interactive panel with completion and open controls on every row, so you can tick things off without opening 2Do.

Creating Tasks

Create Task exposes 2Do's task model in one action:

• Title (required) and Notes.
• Destination: any list, or a project or checklist to create the new item inside as a sub-task. Leave it empty and 2Do uses your default capture list.
• Task Type: Task, Project, or Checklist.
• Starred and Priority.
• Due Date, Due Time, Start Date, Start Time, and Duration.
• Tags and Locations, picked from the ones you already have. Shortcuts does not invent new tags or locations, so create them in 2Do first.
• Alarms from Make Task Alarm, and Recurrence from Make Task Recurrence.
• Action Type and Action Value, to give the task a call, message, email, visit, URL, or web-search action.
• Subtasks, a list of values from Make Task Subtask for scaffolding a project or checklist, up to 100 of them. Each value can include its own notes, dates, duration, priority, tags, locations, alarms, recurrence, and action.

Create Task returns the new task, so the next action can alarm it, move it, or open it straight away.

Finding Tasks

Find Tasks is generated from 2Do's task model, so the Shortcuts filter builder understands real task properties: title, notes, completion, starred, paused, task type, due date, start date, priority, list, tags, and locations.

Combine any number of filters with All or Any matching, sort the results, and cap how many come back. Every task that comes back carries its full field set as Shortcuts variables, including its deep link, so you can feed task details into any other app's actions without a second lookup.

Batch Operations

Set Task Completion, Move Tasks, and Delete Tasks accept a whole list of tasks in one run, up to 100. The batch is checked before anything changes: if one task is invalid the action fails, and otherwise the changes are applied in order. Delete Tasks always asks for confirmation and can never run silently.

Completing a repeating task moves it on to its next occurrence, the same as completing it in the app.

Undo

On iOS 26 or later, Set Task Completion and Delete Tasks register with the system undo manager, so those changes can be undone after the shortcut runs.

Siri

Any shortcut you build can be run by voice: "Hey Siri, ⟨shortcut name⟩". Give capture shortcuts short, speakable names such as Capture It or Plan Tomorrow.

2Do also ships spoken phrases of its own, so you can add, find, and complete tasks without building a shortcut first. See Siri and Shortcuts.

Siri on iOS 27

Requires iOS 27 or later

iOS 27 is currently in beta. Everything else on this page works on the versions listed under Requirements.

On iOS 27, 2Do's tasks and lists are available to Siri conversationally: you can create, update, complete, delete, and look up tasks by asking, with no shortcut in between. See Asking Siri to Work with Your Tasks for exactly which fields Siri can set.

This is a separate surface from the catalogue above: it adds no actions to the Shortcuts app, and your own shortcuts are unaffected. The integration has two further pieces:

• Spotlight results are actionable. Tasks indexed for Spotlight are published as the system's task type, so a task you find in search can be acted on from there rather than only opened.
• Siri knows what is on screen. The task list reports which task each visible row represents, so you can refer to "this task" while you are looking at it.

Spotlight

Your tasks are indexed for Spotlight. Pull down on the home screen, type part of a task's title, and open the result to jump to it in 2Do. Spotlight follows the privacy rules below.

Privacy and Passcodes

Siri and Shortcuts are deliberately stricter than the app itself, because they can run from unattended automations:

• If a passcode is set under Settings > Security, the whole Siri and Shortcuts surface fails closed. Actions report "2Do data is unavailable to Siri and Shortcuts while an app password is set." That holds even while 2Do is unlocked on screen. Spotlight indexes nothing in that state either.
• Password-protected lists are always excluded. Their tasks never appear in results and are never offered as destinations, even while you have unlocked them in the app. Protection is checked again immediately before any write.
• Actions that touch your data require device authentication, so a locked device will not run them.

See Password Protection.

Recipes

• Morning briefing: Get Tasks from Collection (Today) into Show Tasks, for an interactive checklist of the day from one tap or one phrase.
• Quick capture with a deadline: Ask for Input into Create Task with a due date of today, a due time, and a 15-minutes-before alarm from Make Task Alarm.
• Project scaffold: build each template step with Make Task Subtask, then pass the values to Create Task with Task Type set to Project. Duplicate the shortcut per template.
• Weekly sweep: Find Tasks for completed tasks older than last week, into Delete Tasks. The confirmation prompt keeps it safe.
• Heads-down mode: Set Tag Paused on your @errands tag as part of a bigger focus shortcut, with a matching shortcut to resume it.
• Hand off to your calendar: Find Tasks due today with a duration, then create calendar events from each task's title and due time.

Requirements

• The core data, navigation, and value actions run on every device 2Do supports.
• iOS 18 or later adds the Search in 2Do system search action.
• iOS 26 or later adds the interactive Show Tasks panel.
• iOS 27 or later adds conversational Siri access to your tasks and lists, actionable Spotlight results, and on-screen task references.

Related Pages

• Siri and Shortcuts: spoken phrases, conversational Siri access, and the quick-start overview.
• URL Schemes: twodo:// callback integration for apps that can only open a URL.
• Password Protection: what a passcode hides from automation.