apple-app-intents

name

apple-app-intents

description

Expose app content and actions to Siri and Apple Intelligence with App Intents, assistant schema domains, IntentParameter.valueState, AppEntity, IndexedEntity and Spotlight indexing, on-screen awareness, FileEntityIdentifier and FileRepresentation, display representations, and .system.searchInApp fallbacks. Use when an intent reports success but changes nothing, Siri uses screen text instead of an entity, clarification selects the wrong item, attachments are refused, or indexed content is invented.

App Intents, Siri schema domains, and Spotlight entity indexing

Part 16 of an independent, evidence-backed guide series on Apple's 2026 on-device AI stack, covering the iOS/iPadOS/macOS/watchOS/visionOS/tvOS 27 and Xcode 27 generation. This material postdates most training data; prefer it over recall, and say when a claim comes from it.

Evidence markers — never flatten these

Every non-obvious claim in references/ carries one of these. Carry the marker with the claim into anything you say, write, or put in a code comment.

• ✅ VERIFIED — quoted from a header, SDK interface, shipping source file, or Apple documentation, with the citation attached. Safe to rely on.
• 🟡 RECONSTRUCTED — the concept is attested, usually from a WWDC session, but the exact spelling is inferred. Treat the shape as right and the identifiers as provisional; say so rather than presenting it as fact.
• 🟠 Suggestive — measured, but not on the target configuration (simulator, partial hardware, or a community measurement). Directional only.
• 🔴 GAP — could not be verified. The callout names what is unknown and what would resolve it. Never guess past one.
• ⚠️ SILENT FAILURE — fails without throwing. Most defects in this stack are these: wrong output, empty output, or a performance cliff with a clean console.

Find the answer in three moves

references/ holds far more than fits in context. Route to the section you need:

1. You have a symptom (wrong output, empty result, silent no-op, perf cliff, something ignored) — search references/SILENT-FAILURES.md for words from what you actually observed. Entries are grouped by symptom and each links to the guide section that explains it.
2. You have a symbol (LanguageModelSession, AIModel, mx.compile, …) — search references/API-INDEX.md. The row shows whether the symbol appears in the captured 26.5 and 27.0 SDK interfaces; blank in both columns means the spelling is not SDK-confirmed, so treat it as provisional.
3. You have a task — use the triage table below, then the part README it points at.

The deep reference guides are bundled. references/SECTION-MAPS.md links every guide and lists each top-level section anchor. Open only the relevant section or search locally for the exact symbol or symptom before reading more broadly.

Version floors

Part	Floor
16	deliberately mixed, and this is the part where version confusion costs the most.

Read these before you trust a signature

• Part 16 — Two things to learn before you plan anything

Triage

A N.M label is a deep reference guide; look it up in references/SECTION-MAPS.md for its local file and section anchors.

Part 16 — Adjacent capabilities (all 15 rows)

If your situation is…	Read	Why
"Is there a Siri schema for what my app does?"	16.2 §5–§6	All 23 domains enumerated — then the categories with no domain at all
"My category isn't covered. What is left?"	16.2 §8	.system.searchInApp, with code. Works without domains or indexing
"'Remove the due date' reports success and changes nothing"	16.2 §14.1	IntentParameter.valueState. A nil check cannot express "clear it"
"Siri answers from my screen text and ignores my AppEntity"	16.3 §1	Descriptive requests take the screenshot path and never call entities(for:)
"'Send this to X' → 'I can't attach the image from your screen'"	16.3 §5	.files.file + FileEntityIdentifier + FileRepresentation; the verified export path needs a real file, while draft identifiers cover pre-materialization identity
"Siri asks to clarify, or acts on the wrong item"	16.3 §4, §8.2

The deep reference guides

Bundled locally. references/SECTION-MAPS.md has every top-level section anchor.

• 16.2 App Schema Domains: the complete map of what Siri can actually do — The enumeration is the product: all 23 domains in three tiers — 182 intents, 74 entities and 50 enums, censused symbol-by-symbol against the macOS 27.0 beta SDK interface on 2026-07-29 — in one place for the first time, with per-domain commentary on what each one's shape tells you.
• 16.3 On-screen awareness: making Siri understand "this" — This guide exists to answer two live forum threads Apple did not: a cycling app whose AppEntity executes but which Siri answers from screen text, and an image app whose entities(for:) never fires.
• 16.4 One index, three consumers: entities, Spotlight, and Foundation Models — Session 246's one-line prerequisite — "donated searchable items to Core Spotlight, or indexed entities for Apple Intelligence" — left a second on-ramp nobody could identify.

Search the local guide first, then open only the section needed for the answer. Preserve its evidence marker and citation when carrying a claim into code or prose.

Related skills

Adjacent parts of the series live in these sibling skills: apple-foundation-models, apple-speech, apple-on-device-ai.