Guide · Focus automation

Turn On Do Not Disturb on Your Mac Automatically With an Apple Shortcut

Start a focus session in Trigger on your iPhone, and Ikuna on your Mac runs the Apple Shortcut you named: Do Not Disturb on when the session starts, off when it ends. Two small Shortcuts and two names in Settings are the whole setup.

Ikuna on Mac · Trigger for iPhone · Apple Shortcuts

Why a Shortcut, and not a switch inside Ikuna

Apple exposes no API for third-party apps to read or set macOS Focus Modes, so Ikuna cannot flip Do Not Disturb directly. What Ikuna can do is run an Apple Shortcut at the right moment. The Shortcut you write uses the built-in Set Focus action, and that is what changes Do Not Disturb.

This also means the Do Not Disturb profile is only the default use case. A profile set to Shortcut runs whatever you name: quit apps, start a timer, dim the lights. The mechanism is the same.

The chain from a session on your iPhone to Do Not Disturb on your Mac.

What you need

Ikuna for macOS (macOS 13+), running on your Mac.
Trigger for iPhone, paired with your Mac. Trigger is part of Ikuna Pro (€9/month or €70/year).
The Shortcuts app that ships with macOS. No other downloads.

Create the two Shortcuts on your Mac

Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut. Name it exactly Enable Do Not Disturb. Add the Set Focus action, choose Do Not Disturb, and set it to turn On until Turned Off.

Create a second shortcut named Disable Do Not Disturb with the same action, this time turning Do Not Disturb Off. Run each one once from Shortcuts to confirm they toggle the Focus.

Any names work, as long as they match what you type into Ikuna. Short, unique names are easier to keep straight.

Enter the names in Ikuna

In Ikuna on your Mac, open Settings → iPhone and scroll to Advanced. Under Focus profiles, find Do Not Disturb and make sure it is set to Shortcut. Type Enable Do Not Disturb into Enable shortcut name and Disable Do Not Disturb into Disable shortcut name.

The note "Add an Apple Shortcut name before a session can run this" disappears once the enable name is filled in. Ikuna flags problems as you type: a name already used by another profile, an enable name without a matching disable name, a name that is too long, or hidden characters.

Pick the profile in Trigger

In Trigger on your iPhone, edit a trigger in Trigger Studio. In the Mac section, open Focus / Do Not Disturb and choose Do Not Disturb in the Mac Focus picker. If the list is empty, open Trigger's Settings → Account → Mac pairing and request the focus profiles from your Mac.

Start a session. Your Mac runs the enable Shortcut when the session starts and the disable Shortcut when it ends, so Do Not Disturb follows the session without you touching the Mac.

Optional: Focus Shield shortcuts

Focus Shield is Ikuna's built-in block list. It turns on during an iPhone session and needs no Shortcut at all. If you want something custom to happen when blocking starts or stops, fill in the optional names under Settings → iPhone → Advanced → Block lists → Focus Shield.

Focus Shield stays on until the iPhone sends disable, and it does not replace a shield you already turned on yourself. The optional Shortcut runs alongside it, for example to quit specific apps or start a time tracker.

Details worth knowing

Behavior	What actually happens
What Ikuna runs	The exact trimmed name you typed, via the macOS shortcuts command. Rename a shortcut in the Shortcuts app and update the name in Ikuna to match.
Name rules	Trimmed, up to 128 bytes, no hidden control characters. Duplicate checks ignore case across all focus profiles and block lists.
Time limit	Ikuna caps one Shortcut run at 60 seconds. Keep the Shortcut quick; a workflow already handed to the Shortcuts service may keep running past the cap.
More than Do Not Disturb	Add Focus Profile creates extra profiles that run the Shortcuts you name.
Share Across Devices	With System Settings → Focus → Share Across Devices on, iCloud propagates the Mac's Focus state to your iPhone and iPad. It is not instant.

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when the session starts

Run the Shortcut by hand in the Shortcuts app first. Then check the name in Ikuna matches it exactly, the profile is set to Shortcut, and your iPhone shows as paired in Settings → iPhone.

"Add an Apple Shortcut name before a session can run this."

The enable shortcut name is still empty. The profile does nothing until it is filled in.

"Another profile uses this name. Rename one of them."

Duplicate names are matched ignoring case, across every focus profile and block list. Give each Shortcut its own name.

"This name has hidden or unsupported characters. Retype it."

The name picked up an invisible character, often from pasting. Retype it by hand in both Shortcuts and Ikuna.

The Shortcut runs from Shortcuts but not from a session

Confirm the session is actually running on the iPhone and that the Mac and iPhone are paired and connected. Ikuna runs the Shortcut on the Mac the session was started from.

Common questions

Can Ikuna turn on a Mac Focus by itself?

No. Apple exposes no API for third-party apps to read or set macOS Focus Modes. Ikuna runs the Apple Shortcut you named, and that Shortcut's Set Focus action is what changes Do Not Disturb.

Does my iPhone go into Do Not Disturb too?

Only if Share Across Devices is on in System Settings > Focus. Then iCloud propagates the Mac's Focus state to your other devices, and not instantly.

Do the Shortcut names have to match exactly?

Ikuna runs the exact trimmed name you enter in Settings. When checking for duplicates across profiles, Ikuna ignores case, so Enable DND and enable dnd count as the same name.

Can I run something other than Do Not Disturb?

Yes. A focus profile set to Shortcut runs any Apple Shortcut you name, and Add Focus Profile creates extra profiles. Focus Shield, Ikuna's built-in block list, also has optional enable and disable Shortcut fields.

Do I need this for normal iPhone pairing?

No. Pairing, workspace launching and Focus Shield work without any Shortcut names. The Shortcut fields are optional automation.

Set it up once

Two Shortcuts on the Mac, two names in Ikuna, one picker in Trigger. After that, starting a focus session on your iPhone quiets the Mac on its own.

Download Ikuna Trigger on the App Store

Native macOS · Local data · Built in EU