On Xcode 11, how can I configure an Intent to run in the background?

TL;DR

On iOS 13 and Xcode 11, how can I configure an Intent to run in the background and just return the result, so it can be used as the input for other actions in the Shortcuts app?

Details of what I'm trying to achieve

My app has a list of songs that I want to expose via Shortcuts (actually, metadata about the song, not the song itself). The idea is to give advanced users a way to integrate this database of music with other apps or actions they want. For example, one may find useful to get a list of upcoming music for the next month, and use it to create Calendar events for each song. Having access to this list on the Shortcuts app can enable them to do this.

I have created an Intent called "List All Unread Music Releases" and defined its response as a list of objects that contains information about each song. The problem is, when I go to the Shortcuts app, create a new shortcut using this Intent, and run it, it opens my app instead of running in the background.

Steps I've done to create and configure Intents

Here's a high level definition of what I did to configure Intents in the project. The next section will have the actual source code and screenshots.

1. Created a new SiriKit Intent Definition File.
2. Created a new Intent.
   • Defined it's Title, Description, Parameters, and disabled the "Intent is eligible for Siri Suggestions" checkbox.
   • Defined the response property as an Array (because it's going to be a list of songs), and configured the Output to be this array property.
3. Created a new Intents Extension, with the checkbox "Include UI Extension" disabled. The idea here is to process the user request in the background and return a list with the results - no UI required.
4. In the Intents Extension target, defined the IntentsSupported array inside Info.plist with the name of the intent created in step 2.
5. Made the IntentHandler class implement the protocol generated for the intent created in step 2.

Code samples and screenshots

My SiriKit Intent Definition File and the GetUnreadReleases Intent:

The GetUnreadReleases Intent response:

The Intents Extension IntentHandler class:

import Intents

class IntentHandler: INExtension, GetUnreadReleasesIntentHandling {

    func handle(intent: GetUnreadReleasesIntent, completion: @escaping (GetUnreadReleasesIntentResponse) -> Void) {
        let response = GetUnreadReleasesIntentResponse(code: .success, userActivity: nil)
        let release1 = IntentRelease(identifier: "1", display: "Teste 1")
        release1.name = "Name test 1"
        release1.artist = "Artist test 1"
        response.releases = [release1]
        completion(response)
    }

    func resolveMediaType(for intent: GetUnreadReleasesIntent, with completion: @escaping (IntentMediaTypeResolutionResult) -> Void) {
        if intent.mediaType == .unknown {
            completion(.needsValue())
        } else {
            completion(.success(with: intent.mediaType))
        }
    }

    override func handler(for intent: INIntent) -> Any {
        // This is the default implementation.  If you want different objects to handle different intents,
        // you can override this and return the handler you want for that particular intent.
        
        return self
    }
    
}

The Intents Extension Info.plist file:

Conclusion

So, I would like this intent to run in the background, assemble the list of songs based on the user defined parameters, and return this list to be used as an input to other actions in the Shortcuts app.

It looks like previous versions of the Intents editor (Xcode < 11 / iOS < 13.0) had a checkbox "Supports background execution" that did just that, but I can't find it anymore on Xcode 11.

Thanks to edford from Apple Developer Forums, I was able to make it work. In the intents definition file, the "Intent is eligible for Siri Suggestions" checkbox must be checked for the background execution to work.