Limits
What Cloud Butler can't do, or can only do up to a point. If you hit one of these, your agent gets a plain error saying which limit it was.
General
- One Apple Account per connection. To use a second Apple Account, add Cloud Butler a second time in your AI app (if it allows two of the same connector) or use a different AI app.
- Sign-in lasts while you use it. Your AI app's access token lasts one hour and renews itself. A connection you don't use for 30 days expires, and you connect again.
- Early access. Free and Pro plan checks are not switched on yet. Device features need the Cloud Butler app, which isn't released yet.
- Your AI app has its own limits, such as how long a chat can be and how many tool calls it makes. Very large results (a thousand events, a long email) can fill your chat; ask for a narrower range.
- Cloud Butler is not made by Apple and is not an Apple service. It uses Apple's standard protocols for outside mail, calendar and contacts apps.
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Messages per search | 25 by default, up to 200 |
| Text returned when reading one message | 20,000 characters by default, up to 200,000. Longer messages are cut off and say so. |
| Attachments per email you send | Up to 20 files, 10 MB in total |
| Message text alongside attachments | Up to 1.5 MB (iCloud Mail refuses messages over 20 MB once encoded) |
| Attachments from a link | Public https links only: no user name or password in the link, no IP addresses and no local network names. Cloud Butler sends no cookies or sign-in with the download. |
- Sent mail can't be unsent or scheduled for later.
- Reading attachments that arrive in your inbox: your agent sees their names, not their contents.
- Mail rules, signatures, Hide My Email addresses and iCloud Mail settings aren't reachable.
Calendar
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Events per request | 250 by default, up to 1,000 |
| Default time window | The current week (your agent can ask for any range) |
- Repeating events: changing or deleting one changes or deletes the whole series. Cloud Butler can't yet change a single occurrence.
- Invitations: Cloud Butler can't invite people to an event or answer invitations. Ask your agent to email the details instead.
- Time zones: times come back in UTC (world time) and your agent converts them. If times look an hour or more off, tell your agent your time zone.
- Reminders that appear in a calendar list (task lists) aren't events and aren't listed as events.
Contacts
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Contacts per search | 50 by default, up to 500 |
- When an agent updates a contact's emails or phone numbers, the new list replaces the old one. Ask it to include the ones you want to keep.
- Postal addresses, photos and groups are kept when a contact is updated, but can't be edited through Cloud Butler yet.
iCloud Drive, Reminders, Notes, Photos and Find My
Not available on the public Cloud Butler service (see why). Where an operator switches them on: files up to 8 MB to read or upload, recent photos up to 100 at a time, and Notes folders only (not note contents).
Devices (with the Cloud Butler app)
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| Paired devices per person | 5 |
| Device actions | 60 a minute per person |
| Pairing code | Works once, expires after 10 minutes |
| An action waiting for a device or your approval | Expires after 10 minutes |
| Result size from a device | 512 KB |
| Activity log | Last 7 days, up to 2,000 actions |
| Text input to a Shortcut | 10,000 characters |
- Your device needs to be on and online. Home actions work best from an always-on home hub such as a Mac or an iPad at home.
- On iPhone and iPad, only the Shortcuts you share with the Cloud Butler app can run. On a Mac, all of them.
Things Apple decides
- Apple can slow down or refuse requests from any mail, calendar or contacts app if there are too many. Cloud Butler passes Apple's answer on rather than guessing.
- App-specific passwords need two-factor authentication, and all of them are removed when you change your Apple Account password.
- Apple sets which data outside apps may reach. Messages history, Health and Keychain can't be reached by any outside app.