Bear with Apple Shortcuts: Notes, Tags and Siri Limits
Bear documents Shortcuts for creating notes, appending text, searching tags, and exporting content; this does not verify new Siri AI integration. Choose an unlocked destination note for an append workflow and inspect its identifier. Bear's shortcuts cannot access locked notes, and its documented backup generation action is limited to Mac.
What to know
Existing Shortcuts support does not confirm a new Siri AI integration. Bear shortcuts cannot access locked notes; backup generation is Mac only.
Try it step by step
- Open Shortcuts, create a shortcut with the plus button, select Apps in the search panel, and choose Bear.
- Add a current Bear action for creating a note with text. Enter a short sample and run it manually; inspect the saved note.
- For an append workflow, select an unlocked destination note. To obtain its identifier, right-click or long-press the note in Bear’s note list.
- Name the shortcut distinctly, ask Siri to run that name, and check the destination and text. Do not choose one of Bear’s discouraged legacy actions.
What Bear documents for Siri and Shortcuts
Bear documents Apple Shortcuts support on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with Mac support dating from macOS Monterey. Its support article explains how to combine note actions into a workflow and run that workflow by saying its name to Siri. This is enough evidence for Shortcuts documented. It does not establish a publicly released integration with the new Siri AI. The useful starting point is a specific note task: capture a paragraph, add text to an existing note, or open a tag. Choose that task before building a longer automation so that you can inspect a clear result.
Capture, retrieve, and organize different kinds of material
The documented action set goes beyond creating a blank note. Bear lists creating notes from text or a link, adding files, text, or tags to a note, retrieving attached files, searching notes, searching tags, and exporting notes. Navigation actions can open a particular note, tag, or sidebar section such as Today, Todo, or Archive. Other actions can trash, archive, or pin a note and remove tags. These are separate operations with different consequences. A search shortcut is a sensible first experiment; an automation that removes a tag or trashes notes deserves a deliberate review of its selected targets. Bear also documents backup generation on Mac only, so an iPhone workflow should not be designed around that action.
Start with Bear’s examples, then inspect the connections
Bear publishes downloadable examples with distinct inputs and outputs. Share files from a note retrieves photos and files attached to one note and sends them through iMessage, either to a preset contact or someone chosen during the run. Note from PDF receives a PDF through the share sheet and puts its text into a new Bear note. A selfie for your thoughts takes a photo, asks what you are thinking, and creates a dated journal note. Those are vendor workflow examples, not promises that a single natural-language request will reproduce every step. Before adapting one, inspect the recipient, source note, and any actions belonging to other apps. For a personal capture shortcut, establish where the text comes from and whether you want a new note or an addition to an existing one. Run it manually before using Siri so that a destination mistake is visible.
Respect locked notes and avoid legacy actions
Bear explicitly says shortcuts cannot access locked notes for privacy reasons. A voice trigger does not remove that restriction, and a failed append to a protected note should not be interpreted as evidence that Siri AI is unavailable. The same article warns against automatically generated legacy actions outside Bear’s control: Create Bear Note, Create Bear Note from URL, Open Bear Note, and Search in Bear. Use the current Bear action library instead of selecting an older action merely because its name sounds familiar. Sources were checked on November 6, 2026; this entry describes documentation, without claiming a device test. For task capture rather than note storage, compare Things. For collecting raw text before deciding its destination, compare Drafts. The Shortcuts guide explains how a named workflow connects to Siri without changing this integration status.
Common questions
Does Bear have verified new Siri AI support?
This entry verifies Bear’s documented Shortcuts workflow and the ability to invoke a shortcut by name with Siri. That evidence does not verify a public release of the new Siri AI integration. The status remains shortcuts, and the article does not claim device testing.
Can a Bear shortcut read a locked note?
No. Bear’s support article excludes access to locked notes for privacy reasons. Choose an appropriate unlocked test note when setting up creation or append workflows. Do not treat the inability to access a locked note as a reason to expect a different Siri command to bypass the restriction.
Which Bear shortcuts should I avoid?
Bear discourages the legacy actions Create Bear Note, Create Bear Note from URL, Open Bear Note, and Search in Bear. Select actions from Bear’s current library in Shortcuts instead. Also check platform scope: generating a backup is documented for Mac, not for every supported device.