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Make a daily agenda wallpaper with Apple Shortcuts

Build a shortcut that draws today's calendar events onto your iPhone wallpaper every morning, using Shortcut Canvas and a Time of Day automation. No widgets or accounts needed.

  • Shortcut Canvas
  • Shortcuts
  • iPhone
  • Calendars
  • Automation

Widgets can show your next event, but only one or two at a time. This guide builds a shortcut that draws the whole day’s schedule onto your wallpaper instead. Add a Time of Day trigger, and your agenda is waiting each morning when you pick up your iPhone.

The drawing is done by Shortcut Canvas, which adds image-building actions to Apple Shortcuts. The shortcut reads today’s events with Apple’s own Calendar actions, lays them out on a canvas, renders a PNG and sets it as your wallpaper. Everything happens on the device: Shortcut Canvas has no network access and needs no account.

The screenshots show Shortcuts on iOS 27 and Shortcut Canvas 1.2.1 on an iPhone 17, with a sample Saturday calendar.

What you need

  • An iPhone with Shortcut Canvas installed and the Shortcuts app.
  • Some events in your calendar today, so you can see the result while testing.
  • About 15 minutes to add the actions.

Before you start, think about where the wallpaper appears. A Lock Screen wallpaper shows your event titles to anyone who picks up the phone. If your calendar is private, use the image for the Home Screen only, or limit the shortcut to one calendar as shown in step 1.

Agenda wallpaper rendered by the shortcut: a dark blue gradient with a translucent card headed Saturday, 31 October, listing 08:30 Morning run, 10:00 Farmers market, 12:30 Lunch with Sam, 15:00 Pumpkin carving and 19:00 Halloween party at Marta's. View full size
The PNG the shortcut renders. The card sits below the Lock Screen clock.

Get the finished shortcut

TLDR: If you’d rather start from a working copy, open this page on your iPhone and download the Agenda Wallpaper shortcut. Open the downloaded file from Safari’s downloads or from Files → Downloads, then tap Add Shortcut.

Before you run it:

  • Install Shortcut Canvas first. The shortcut uses its actions.
  • If your iPhone isn’t an iPhone 17, change 1206 × 2622 in Create Canvas and the first Add Rectangle to your screen size, as described in step 5.
  • Add the Time of Day trigger yourself, as described in step 9. The download doesn’t include it.

The rest of this guide builds the same shortcut step by step and explains what each action does.

How the shortcut is put together

The shortcut works in three parts:

  1. Collect the events. Find today’s calendar events and turn them into lines of text, such as 09:30 Design review.
  2. Draw the wallpaper. Create a canvas the size of your screen and add a background, a card, a date heading and the agenda text.
  3. Set the wallpaper. Render the canvas as a PNG and pass it to Apple’s Set Wallpaper Photo action.

Open Shortcuts, tap + to create a shortcut and rename it Agenda Wallpaper. Shortcuts on iOS 27 opens new shortcuts with Describe a Shortcut; tap Editor to add actions yourself. Add the actions below in order, using the search field at the bottom. To find a Shortcut Canvas action, search for its name or for “Shortcut Canvas”.

1. Find today’s events

Add Find Calendar Events. It starts with the filter Start Date is in the next 7 days:

  1. Tap is in the next and choose is today.
  2. To show only some calendars, tap Add Filter and set Calendar is and the calendar you want.
  3. Set Sort by to Start Date. Order changes to Oldest First.
  4. Turn on Limit and tap + until it reads Get 6 Calendar events. More than six events rarely fit at a readable size.
Shortcuts editor with Find Calendar Events where Start Date is today, sorted by Start Date, Oldest First, with Limit on and Get 6 Calendar events, followed by Repeat with each item in Calendar Events. View full size
Find today's events, oldest first, up to six.

2. Turn each event into a line of text

Add Repeat with Each. It connects to Calendar Events from the previous action. Inside the repeat:

  1. Add Format Date and set its date to Repeat Item, then tap the variable and choose Start Date. Tap the arrow, choose Custom for the date format, and enter HH:mm. Every time then has the same width, so the titles line up in a column. Use h:mm a if you prefer 12-hour times.
  2. Add Text and enter Formatted Date, two spaces, and Repeat Item with its Title property.

After End Repeat, add Combine Text. Set it to combine Repeat Results with New Lines.

All-day events start at midnight, so they appear as 00:00. To label them instead, put an If inside the repeat that checks the Repeat Item’s Is All Day property, and use the text All day in place of the time.

Repeat with each item in Calendar Events containing Format Start Date and a Text action with Formatted Date and Title, then End Repeat and Combine Repeat Results with New Lines. View full size
Each event becomes one line; Combine Text joins them.

3. Handle days with nothing scheduled

Without events, the card would be empty. Add If, set the condition to Combined Text does not have any value, and inside it:

  1. Add Text with something like Nothing on the calendar today.
  2. Add Set Variable, name the variable Agenda, and set it to that Text.

Under Otherwise, add Set Variable Agenda to Combined Text. The rest of the shortcut uses Agenda, whichever branch ran.

4. Format the date heading

After End If, add Format Date for the Current Date. Choose Custom and enter EEEE, d MMMM, which produces headings like Saturday, 31 October. Use EEEE, MMMM d if you prefer the month first.

If Combined Text does not have any value, Text Nothing on the calendar today, Set variable Agenda to Text, Otherwise Set variable Agenda to Combined Text. View full size
The Agenda variable holds the events or a friendly fallback.

5. Create the canvas

Add Create Canvas from Shortcut Canvas. Your wallpaper should match your screen’s pixel size, so type the width and height into the action and keep Size Preset on Custom. The values in this guide are for the 1206 × 2622 screen of iPhone 17; iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 use 1179 × 2556. To find your iPhone’s size, run a separate shortcut with Get Device Details set to Screen Width and then Screen Height.

Tap the arrow to set the other parameters:

Parameter Value
Name Agenda Wallpaper
Width × Height 1206 × 2622
Size Preset Custom
Scale 1
Background Color #0F1A3A
Persistence Temporary
Appearance Dark

Scale stays at 1 because width and height are already in pixels. Temporary canvases are cleaned up automatically, which suits a wallpaper made fresh every day. While you’re adjusting the layout, choose Saved instead so you can open the canvas in the Shortcut Canvas app and zoom into the preview.

Create Agenda Wallpaper at 1206 × 2622 expanded to show Size Preset Custom, Scale 1, Background Color #0F1A3A, Persistence Temporary, Appearance Dark and Show When Run off. View full size
A temporary canvas the exact size of the screen.

6. Draw the background and card

Each Shortcut Canvas action takes the canvas from the action before it and passes it on, so the following actions connect to it automatically.

Add Add Rectangle for a gradient background that covers the whole canvas. Tap the arrow to reveal its other parameters.

Parameter Value
Width × Height 1206 × 2622
X, Y 0, 0
Fill Color #0F1A3A
Gradient End Color #2A3F7A
Gradient Direction Top to Bottom

Add a second Add Rectangle for the card that holds the agenda. It sits in the lower half of the screen, clear of the Lock Screen clock and the flashlight and camera buttons.

Parameter Value
Width × Height 1026 × 760
X, Y 90, 1200
Fill Color #FFFFFF14
Corner Radius 56

The last two digits of #FFFFFF14 set the opacity, so the card is white at about 8% and lets the gradient show through.

7. Add the heading and agenda

Add Add Symbol for a small calendar icon:

Parameter Value
Symbol Name calendar
X, Y 150, 1270
Width × Height 72 × 72
Point Size 56
Foreground Color #94E2D5

Add Add Text for the date heading, with the Formatted Date from step 4 as its text:

Parameter Value
X, Y 250, 1270
Maximum Width 800
Font Size 52
Font Weight Semibold
Text Color #F2F5FF
Maximum Height 72
Vertical Alignment Center

Add Add Line to divide the heading from the events. A height of 0 makes the line horizontal.

Parameter Value
Width × Height 906 × 0
X, Y 150, 1390
Color #FFFFFF33
Thickness 2
Shortcut Canvas actions in order: Create Agenda Wallpaper at 1206 × 2622, a 1206 × 2622 rectangle at 0, 0, a 1026 × 760 rectangle at 90, 1200, Add symbol calendar, Add Formatted Date, and a 906 × 0 line. View full size
Each action adds one element and passes the canvas on.

Finally, add Add Text with the Agenda variable as its text:

Parameter Value
X, Y 150, 1440
Maximum Width 906
Font Size 46
Text Color #C9D3EF
Maximum Height 460
Minimum Scale Factor 0.6
Line Spacing 18

Maximum Height keeps the text inside the card, and Minimum Scale Factor lets it shrink to 60% on a busy day instead of being cut off.

8. Render and set the wallpaper

Add Render Canvas. It shows as Render Canvas as PNG; tap the arrow and set File Name to agenda and Overwrite Policy to Replace. Leave Output Scale at 1, so the PNG is exactly 1206 × 2622.

Then add Set Wallpaper Photo. It shows as Set Wallpaper to File for Lock Screen and Home Screen, with the rendered file already connected. Change Lock Screen and Home Screen if you want the agenda on only one of them. If you have several Lock Screens, tap Wallpaper to choose which one to update. Tap the arrow and turn off:

  • Show Preview, so the shortcut finishes without asking you.
  • Crop to Subject, so iOS doesn’t zoom into part of the image.
  • Legibility Blur, so the card stays sharp.

Tap ▶ to run the shortcut. The first run asks for access to your calendars, then asks to allow Agenda Wallpaper to run actions from Shortcut Canvas and to share text items and calendar events with it. Choose Always Allow so the automation in the next step can run without you.

Add Agenda to Canvas, Render Canvas as PNG, and Set Wallpaper to File for Lock Screen and Home Screen, expanded with Show Preview, Crop to Subject and Legibility Blur all turned off. View full size
Turn off all three options so the wallpaper is set exactly as drawn.

9. Update it every morning

In iOS 27, automations live inside the shortcut they run. To refresh the wallpaper every morning:

  1. In the Agenda Wallpaper editor, tap the search field and choose the Automation category.
  2. Choose Time of Day. It appears at the top of the shortcut as At Time.
  3. Tap Time and set it to 06:00.
  4. Tap the arrow and check that Repeat is Every Day and Automation is on. Leave Notify off if you don’t want a notification each morning.

The wallpaper shows the events that existed when the shortcut ran. If your day often changes, run the shortcut again after adding an event, or create a second shortcut with a midday trigger.

Time of Day trigger at the top of the Agenda Wallpaper shortcut: At 06:00, Event Time of Day, Repeat Every Day, Automation on, Notify off, above Find Calendar Events. View full size
The Time of Day trigger runs the shortcut at 06:00 every day.

Make it your own

  • Use a template. Shortcut Canvas includes 18 templates. For a single important event, Create Canvas from Template with the Calendar Event Card template turns an event title into a finished design in one action.
  • Change the colours. Colours accept #RRGGBB, #RRGGBBAA, or names such as white and blue.
  • Add a progress bar. Add Progress Bar draws a bar from a 0–100 value. Use it to show how much of the day, week or a project has passed.
  • Add a photo. Add Image from File places a photo from an earlier action, such as Select Photos or Find Photos, with fit, crop and corner radius options. Add it before the card so the card stays on top.

If something doesn’t look right

  • The wallpaper is zoomed or cropped: check that the canvas size matches Screen Width and Screen Height from Get Device Details, and that Crop to Subject is off.
  • The agenda overlaps the clock or the Lock Screen buttons: move the card by changing its Y value, and move the other elements by the same amount.
  • The text is cut off: lower the Limit in Find Calendar Events or the Minimum Scale Factor, or increase the card’s height and the text’s Maximum Height together.
  • The card says nothing is scheduled: check the filters in step 1, and that today’s events appear in Calendar.
  • The automation stops to ask a question: run the shortcut once yourself and choose Always Allow for each prompt, and make sure Show Preview is off in Set Wallpaper Photo.

Start with the layout above, check it on your Lock Screen, then adjust the colours and sizes until it fits your wallpaper.

Explore Shortcut Canvas or get it on the App Store.

https://prawel.pl/blog/make-a-daily-agenda-wallpaper-with-apple-shortcuts/