The macOS App Store contains a free app named Actions, which adds a large number of actions to the Shortcuts app. These include:
set, get, and delete global variables, which are available in other shortcuts;
manipulate lists including sort, shuffle, and combine;
merge dictionaries;
get running apps;
get current time in nanoseconds; and
wait milliseconds.
After installing the Actions app, one can view all of the added actions by clicking on the Apps tab in the right sidebar and by selecting Actions.
The Actions app can be removed from a computer like any other app. The developer’s GitHub site–which lists all of the actions included in the app–is here. The version of the Actions app on the App Store requires macOS 13.
The following shortcut runs a timing test on specified actions. As written, the shortcut prompts the user for a folder (which is not timed) and returns the time it takes to get all files in the selected folder and its subfolders. This shortcut uses an action from the Actions app, which must be installed for this shortcut to work.
Note should be made that the shortcut has an overhead which on my computer is about 6 milliseconds. I have adjusted for this in the text action, and each user should set this value to whatever applies on their computer. This shortcut is not super-accurate but may be helpful to find significant differences.
