AppleScript
Ranked 5 of 14 scripting languages by recommenders
Built into macOS, AppleScript lets people automate many Mac apps through their scriptable interfaces. Critics say its English-like syntax is confusing and automations break as apps change.
Built into macOS, AppleScript lets people automate many Mac apps through their scriptable interfaces. Critics say its English-like syntax is confusing and automations break as apps change.
37 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 18
- approval share
- 51%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Automates most Mac app interfaces
“almost everything you wanted to do on a Mac GUI already _was_ scriptable”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “OpenClaw Is What Apple Intelligence Should Have Been” “AppleScript arguably offers a far richer interface for driving applications that have a UI”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Linux was accidentally designed for agents” “It also has all the "wiring" exposed via AppleScript for most applications.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Linux was accidentally designed for agents” - Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “A Deep Dive into Apple's .car File Format”
Works well with Shortcuts
“Shortcuts.app and AppleScript works for this.”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “The struggle of resizing windows on macOS Tahoe” “Shortcuts + AppleScript is gold on macOS.”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Schedule Claude Code tasks on the web” Easy to pick up
“AppleScript predates Javascript by two years, but by even more than that in terms of usability.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon” “AppleScript was just a little weird but I could get my head around it.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Cherri – programming language that compiles directly to a Apple Shortuct”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
English-like syntax is confusing
“AppleScript "English" was designed to be intuitive and easy to understand (or so claimed various manuals), but boy howdy did I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what "English" it did accept.”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “EYG: A Programming Language for Humans” “It was quite possible to forget at times which English verbs were language keywords and which weren't.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “I can't believe PowerShell is good” “Could never remember the "easier natural" way to write even small pieces of code correctly in it.”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Logos Language Guide: Compile English to Rust” - Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978)”
- Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978)”
Breaks as apps change
“many of my automations have broken throughout the years as Apple tweaked their applications”
Comment from 10 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Stash – Sync Markdown Files with Apple Notes via CLI” “it is not well-supported by modern applications”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Computer Use Is 45x More Expensive Than Structured APIs” “automation via Automator and Applescript was inconsistent and unsupported in many contexts”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon” Apple has neglected it
“Automator and AppleScript would have been gamechangers if Apple had promoted them”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “"Gravity is worth asking about."” “it seems like Apple doesn't care much about it anymore”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Windows/Linux software that has no real equivalent on macOS?” “It's so sad to see what happened to AppleScript/the Open Scripting Architecture.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “July 23 1985, Commodore introduced its Amiga 1000: 10 years ahead of its time” Feels old and dated
“AppleScript is old, weird, and still wired into a lot of Mac apps”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “Cherri – programming language that compiles directly to a Apple Shortuct” “AppleScript predates Javascript by two years, but by even more than that in terms of usability.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Hammerspoon” “the same reasons that I bounced off of AppleScript years ago”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Loreline – Tools for writing interactive fiction”
Other scripting languages people recommend
The four most recommended other scripting languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lua | 186 | 62 | 75% | 12 | 10 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| awk | 67 | 18 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| AutoHotkey | 44 | 5 | 90% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GDScript | 22 | 16 | 58% | 9 | — | — |
| AppleScriptThis page | 19 | 18 | 51% | 10 | — | — |
What people said
36 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“most attempts to be "more natural language like", such as COBOL or AppleScript, do become worse”
“The experiment in designing a language that resembled natural languages (English and Japanese) was not successful.”
“It was quite possible to forget at times which English verbs were language keywords and which weren't.”
“Applescript was ahead of its time by letting you script the Apple GUI, but it took an actual programming language to do it.”
“I wanted something that could actually replace AppleScript/Automator to a useful degree.”
“neither is AppleScript imo”
“the promise of AppleScript, vb script, IFTT, and every failed drag and drop coding tool”
“Automator and AppleScript would have been gamechangers if Apple had promoted them”
“AppleScript "English" was designed to be intuitive and easy to understand (or so claimed various manuals), but boy howdy did I spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly what "English" it did accept.”
“it was one of the big things that kept publishers on the Mac”
“It's so sad to see what happened to AppleScript/the Open Scripting Architecture.”
“the same reasons that I bounced off of AppleScript years ago”
“a much better language than applescript itself”
“AppleScript even had "dictionaries" declaring their commands and everything, would have been perfect way teach LLMs how to automate applications.”
“AppleScript arguably offers a far richer interface for driving applications that have a UI”
“It also has all the "wiring" exposed via AppleScript for most applications.”
“it is not well-supported by modern applications”
“multiphase execution has a high chance of having the code break in the middle”
“AppleScript was just a little weird but I could get my head around it.”
“AppleScript is old, weird, and still wired into a lot of Mac apps”
“Shortcuts + AppleScript is gold on macOS.”
“AppleScript predates Javascript by two years, but by even more than that in terms of usability.”
“the syntax is inscrutable”
“automation via Automator and Applescript was inconsistent and unsupported in many contexts”
“Insanely easier to use, way better programming language”
“it's quite handy in this new era of hijacking mac mini's”
“I have never seen it done to any useful result”
“For a lot of applications, especially ones that started life in the classic MacOS days, AppleScript automation was pretty amazing.”
“almost everything you wanted to do on a Mac GUI already _was_ scriptable”
“Shortcuts.app and AppleScript works for this.”
“many of my automations have broken throughout the years as Apple tweaked their applications”
“historically speaking, AppleScript is pretty stable”
“the errors raised from the AppleScript without printing the error inside a try-catch are incredibly dim”
“Could never remember the "easier natural" way to write even small pieces of code correctly in it.”
“it seems like Apple doesn't care much about it anymore”
“On MacOS, Apple script does wonders”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.