TankSensei iPhone setup

Siri Shortcuts

Log a reading by voice, or ask Sensei how the tank is doing, without opening the app. You build the shortcuts once in Apple's Shortcuts app; it takes about five minutes.

1. Get a token

In TankSensei, open Account → Siri Shortcuts → Create a token.

The token is shown once. We keep only a fingerprint of it, so it cannot be shown again. Copy it before you leave the screen. If you lose it, revoke it and make another; that costs nothing. A revoked token stops working immediately, and the panel shows when each token was last used.

Treat the token like a password. Anyone who has it can log readings and notes to your tanks, so paste it only into your own shortcuts.

2. Build "Log a reading"

In the Shortcuts app, make a new shortcut and add these actions in order:

  1. Dictate Text: the parameter name, e.g. "alkalinity". The usual names and short forms work: alk or KH, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, salinity, temperature, pH, ammonia, nitrite, or the name of a custom parameter as it appears in the app. Ammonia and nitrite need their cards on the tank first (Tank settings, Parameters).
  2. Dictate Text: the value, e.g. "eight point four". Two separate prompts is deliberate: one long sentence is where mishearing gets worst.
  3. Get Contents of URL
    • URL: https://tanksensei.com/api/shortcuts/reading
    • Method: POST
    • Headers: Authorization = Bearer YOUR_TOKEN
    • Request Body: JSON, with param = the first Dictated Text and value = the second
  4. Get Dictionary Value: key speak.
  5. Speak Text: the value from step 4. Siri says something like "Logging alkalinity 8.4 dKH. Say confirm to save, or cancel." If the number looks wrong against your recent readings, it says so here, before anything is saved.
  6. Ask for Input (or Dictate Text): "Confirm?"
  7. If the answer contains confirm:
    • Get Contents of URL: same URL, method and header, with the same body plus confirm = true
    • Get Dictionary Value speak → Speak Text
  8. Otherwise: Speak Text "Cancelled."

Name it something Siri hears cleanly. "Log a reading" works.

Nothing is saved until you confirm. Speech recognition turns "eight point four" into 84 often enough that a silent save would throw off your score, your trends and the dose calculator.

3. Build "How is my tank"

  1. Get Contents of URL
    • URL: https://tanksensei.com/api/shortcuts/evaluate
    • Method: GET
    • Headers: Authorization = Bearer YOUR_TOKEN
  2. Get Dictionary Value: key speak.
  3. Speak Text.

This reads your latest Sensei Score, so ask as often as you like. It speaks the caveats too: which parameters are out of date and not in the score, and how old the score is. On screen those are pills next to the number; spoken aloud they have to be said.

4. Optional: "Tank note"

  1. Dictate Text.
  2. Get Contents of URL: POST to https://tanksensei.com/api/shortcuts/note, same Authorization header, JSON body body = the Dictated Text.
  3. Get Dictionary Value speak → Speak Text.

For things like "moved the hammer coral, cleaned the skimmer cup". Notes land in the tank journal marked as said to Siri, so they read as your observation, never as a measured value.

Good to know