How to Create Finder Quick Actions With Automator (Mac)

Finder's right-click menu isn't fixed — you can add your own commands to it. With Automator, a five-minute workflow becomes a Quick Action: select some files, right-click, and resize, convert, or rename them on the spot. No third-party apps, and it works the same on macOS Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia.

Create the Quick Action

1. Open Automator (it's in your Applications folder, or hit Cmd+Space and type it).
2. Choose File → New, then pick Quick Action (the gear icon).
3. At the top of the workflow area, set Workflow receives current to the input type — image files for an image tool, or files or folders for something general — in Finder.
4. Drag actions from the library on the left into the workflow area. They run top to bottom, each feeding its output to the next.
5. Save (Cmd+S) with a short, clear name — that name is exactly what appears in the right-click menu.

A worked example: resize images to 1200 px

This is the classic first Quick Action, and it shows the one habit worth learning early: protect your originals.

• Set the input to image files in Finder.
• Add Copy Finder Items first and point it at a folder like Downloads. Without this step, the next action overwrites your original files in place. Automator will even offer to add it for you — say yes.
• Add Scale Images and set To Size (pixels) to 1200.
• Save it as Resize to 1200px.

Now select any batch of images in Finder, right-click, and choose Quick Actions → Resize to 1200px. Other actions worth exploring for your next one: Change Type of Images (HEIC to JPEG conversion), Rename Finder Items, and New PDF from Images. The Watermark PDF Documents action does exactly what it says for PDFs.

Where Quick Actions show up

Your saved workflow appears in three places: the right-click Quick Actions submenu, the Finder preview pane (show it with Shift+Cmd+P, then look under the file info), and the Touch Bar on Macs that have one. If a new action doesn't appear, check that it's enabled: on macOS 13 and 14 that's System Settings → Privacy & Security → Extensions → Finder; on macOS 15 Sequoia it moved to General → Login Items & Extensions → File Providers/Extensions area — click the info button next to Quick Actions. Tick your workflow on.

Edit or remove a Quick Action

Everything you save lives as a .workflow file in ~/Library/Services. To edit one, open that folder (in Finder, Go → Go to Folder…, then paste the path), and double-click the workflow — it opens back in Automator. To undo the whole thing, drag the file to the Trash; it vanishes from the right-click menu immediately. Nothing else on your system is touched, which is what makes Quick Actions such a low-risk way to automate: each one is a single self-contained file you can delete at any time.

One more step: give it a hotkey

Quick Actions also show up in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services, where you can assign a key combo — so your resize action can fire without touching the mouse. If you'd rather build automations visually with modern blocks, the Shortcuts app covers a lot of the same ground and can also appear in Finder's Quick Actions menu.