Federico Viticci Reverse Engineered Shortcuts

Federico Viticci, the writer and creator behind MacStories, has spent the last decade covering Apple and building shortcuts for a living. But this year, something shifted. After Apple announced its own “Describe a Shortcut” feature at WWDC — a natural language tool that generates automations in seconds — Viticci didn’t just accept being “Sherlocked.” He reverse engineered Apple’s entire approach, built his own competing system that works faster, and is now training a custom local AI model to beat Apple at its own game. In this conversation on Mac Power Users, Viticci walks through what he discovered, why he did it, and what it reveals about the psychology of tinkering, the limits of AI-generated shortcuts, and the changing shape of the Apple creator economy.

The Psychology of Staying Relevant

Viticci has attended seven WWDCs, and he describes a persistent, moderate discomfort that he now considers essential. “I don’t want to become one of those old guys that have an axe to grind at all times and they’re stuck in their ways,” he says. The Apple media ecosystem has transformed around him — from journalists and bloggers to YouTubers, then to TikTok and Instagram creators. He still feels out of place, but he’s learned to use that feeling as fuel. “A moderate level of discomfort is good for me in a way because it keeps me on my toes.”