macOS Shortcuts and button-like automation in Numbers?

> The problem is that I don't see "Numbers" in the programs you can make shortcuts for. Unless I'm just being blind.

It's there, but you have to scroll down the Apps list a bit to find it.

There also aren't many direct commands that you can Shortcut, and none that match your ask of incrementing a cell value.

However, you might be able to get there via Run AppleScript action:

on run {input, parameters}
	tell application "Numbers"
		tell table 1 of active sheet of document 1
			set the_selection to get selection range
			if the_selection is missing value then return
			set target_cell to cell 1 of the_selection
			try
				set current_cell_value to value of target_cell as number
				set value of target_cell to (current_cell_value + 1)
			end try
		end tell
	end tell
	return input
end run

This quick and dirty script will increment the currently selected cell in the first table of the current sheet. It has minimal error checking (e.g. there has to be a cell selected, and it only increments number values), and it should be more robust for production use (especially if other people are using it in ways you don't expect), but it might get you started.

Pretty sure those options match what was in my screenshot, albeit in a slightly different presentation. If you look to the app icon for the 5 options in the middle, you'll see these relate to Numbers.app, specifically, as opposed to the keyword 'numbers' somewhere in the action title.

Ultimately, while there is "support" for Numbers' actions in Automator/Shortcut, it's pretty lightweight. There is no facility for deep integration, calculation, etc. You cannot ask Automator to get or set the value of a specific cell, or perform conditional actions based on data in the spreadsheet, at least not without resorting to Run AppleScript, as noted in my earlier post.

If each of these actions can be scripted using AppleScript then I believe it can be done using the Scortcuts app. Create a shortcut for each script. Have the Shortcuts app open so you can see and click on the "play" button of each shortcut. Not an ideal situation, though, unless you have a large/wide monitor to show both apps at once.

If you don't mind having to click something first before clicking on one of your actions, you can put a Shortcuts app icon on the main OS menu. When clicked on it will pop up a window that lists all your shortcuts then you can choose one. Since the release of MacOS 26, though, this is much less useful than it used to be because it won't show more than four shortcuts without scrolling and they are in alphabetical order. I quit using Shortcuts because of this and went back to plain old AppleScripts. You can put an icon for the Script Editor on the main menu and it will list all your user Applescripts (which is what the Shortcuts app used to do but no longer does).

I think it is recommended by most app developers to restart the device when shortcuts actions for their apps don’t appear in the Shortcuts app.