Calendar Integration

Reference for reading and creating calendar events on macOS.

Reading Events (icalBuddy)

Use icalBuddy for fast calendar queries:

# Today's events
icalBuddy -f -nc -nrd -df "" -tf "%H:%M" eventsToday

# This week's events
icalBuddy -f -nc -nrd eventsToday+7

# Tomorrow's events
icalBuddy -f -nc -nrd -df "" -tf "%H:%M" eventsFrom:tomorrow to:tomorrow

# Specific date range
icalBuddy -f -nc -nrd eventsFrom:"2026-01-15" to:"2026-01-20"

Flags:

• -f - Format output
• -nc - No calendar names in output
• -nrd - No relative dates ("today", "tomorrow")
• -df "" - Date format (empty = no date prefix)
• -tf "%H:%M" - Time format (24h)

Creating Events (AppleScript)

IMPORTANT: Always list calendars first before creating events. Calendar names vary by user.

Step 1: List Available Calendars

tell application "Calendar" to get name of every calendar
-- Returns: {"Calendar", "Personal", "Work", "Birthdays", ...}

Common calendar names: "Personal", "Home", "Work", "Calendar" (default)

Step 2: Create Event

tell application "Calendar"
    tell calendar "Personal"  -- Use actual calendar name from step 1
        make new event with properties {
            summary:"Event Title",
            start date:date "Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 9:15:00 AM",
            end date:date "Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 10:15:00 AM",
            location:"Address here",
            description:"Notes here"
        }
    end tell
end tell

All-Day Events

tell application "Calendar"
    tell calendar "Personal"
        make new event with properties {
            summary:"Day Off",
            start date:date "Monday, January 20, 2026 at 12:00:00 AM",
            allday event:true
        }
    end tell
end tell

Querying Specific Calendars

# Events from specific calendar
icalBuddy -ic "Work" eventsToday

# Exclude specific calendars
icalBuddy -ec "Birthdays" -ec "Holidays" eventsToday

Date Format for AppleScript

AppleScript requires dates in this format:

"Weekday, Month Day, Year at Hour:Minute:Second AM/PM"

Examples:

• "Saturday, January 17, 2026 at 9:15:00 AM"
• "Monday, February 3, 2026 at 2:30:00 PM"

Anti-Patterns

DON'T assume calendar names

Always list calendars first - names vary by user and iCloud setup.

DON'T use icalBuddy for creating events

It's read-only. Use AppleScript to create events.

DON'T forget time zones

AppleScript uses the system time zone. Be explicit if the user mentions a different zone.