Build An Alexa Smart Properties Skill

This is a sample Alexa skill for Alexa Smart Properties (ASP). Please note that ASP skills are hidden from the public catalog by default, and can only be enabled on selected properties. You are required to have an active ASP subscription and contacts at Amazon. If you are looking for sample skills for the regular consumer version of Alexa, please refer to Alexa Samples instead. This skill acts as an assistant in a senior living facility. Residents can ask questions such as "Alexa, what are the activities for today", or make requests like "Alexa, I am in pain", "Alexa, I need help", "Alexa, please ask staff to bring my medications". Feel free to use this sample skill as a reference, or as a template to build your own property skill(s).

Contents

The contents of this repository is broken down into a few sub-folders.

Skill-package

This is a copy the sample skill's interaction model. It defines the invocation name, intents and various metadata. In other words, it defines how questions can be understood. For example, a user asking "Alexa, I need help" can be mapped to a "help intent".

Lambda

This is the backend of the sample skill. It defines how questions are handled on the server-side. This sample uses Node.js 18.x environment and would be hosted on AWS Lambda. However, you have the flexibility to decide where your backend will be hosted, and what programming language to code it with. Parts of the lambda code are left for you to implement. For example, if your property has a staff notification system (via text etc.) that can be called via an API, you can modify the help intent handler such that whenever a user asks Alexa for help, Alexa automatically opens a ticket to your staff.

Name-Free Interactions (NFI)

NFI allows a skill to be invoked without specifying its invocation name. For instance instead of saying "Alexa, ask [skill name] I need help", users can simply say "Alexa, I need help". In this repository we have included a sample list of golden utterances. For more information on NFI, please refer to Understanding Name-Free Interaction for custom skills.

Sample Skill Setup

If you intend to use this sample skill as a template to build your own property skill, here are the recommended steps:

Prerequisites:

1. Configure ASK_CLI: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/smapi/quick-start-alexa-skills-kit-command-line-interface.html

2. Create amazon developer account and AWS account.

3. Clone the sample skill to local workspace.

4. Verify ask and aws profiles: cat ~/.ask/cli_config cat ~/.aws/credentials

5. Verify vendor account access by listing skills available for the ask profile:

   ask smapi list-skills-for-vendor [-p <ask_profile>]
   

Step 1: Create skill

Create a blank, custom Alexa skill using either the skill console or command line interface (CLI). This step ensures your skill is assigned with a unique ID, and that it has the right dependency files (e.g. node_modules).

By the end of this Step, you would have a skill created under your developer.amazon.com account and see this message: Project for skill "<skill_name>" is successfully created at Project initialized with deploy delegate "@ask-cli/lambda-deployer" successfully.

ask new [-p <ask_profile>]

Choose a modeling stack for your skill: Interaction Model Choose the programming language you will use to code your skill: NodeJS Choose a method to host your skill's backend resources: AWS Lambda Choose a template to start with: Hello world Please type in your skill name: <skill_name> Please type in your folder name for the skill project (alphanumeric): <folder_name>

Step 2: Deploy skill

Use ASK CLI commands to deploy your new skill to your developer portal account.

By the end of this Step, you would have a skill created under your developer.amazon.com account and see this message: Skill package deployed and all models built successfully.

ask deploy [-p <ask_profile>]

Note: At this point skill is created and respective skill package and lambda function are deployed to your account. Verify if you see the new skill on developer portal and respective lambda function in your associated AWS account.

Step 3: Enable Name Free Interaction by updating the skill mainfest file

By the end of this Step, you would have a skill Name Free Interaction(NFI) enabled.

Download the skill mainfest file usign below command:

ask smapi get-skill-manifest -s <skill_id> manifest.json [-p <ask_profile>]

Follow steps metioned on this link to update the manifest file: https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/alexa-smart-properties/name-free-interaction.html#update-manifest

Upload the updated skill mainfest file usign below command:

ask smapi update-skill-manifest -g development -s <skill_id> --manifest "$(cat manifest.json)" [-p <ask_profile>]

Step 4: Skill content updates

1. Copy the contents of skill-package and lambda to your workspace. It is important that you retain the skill ID and workspace configurations created in the previous step.
2. Update skill node modules using 'npm install' command.
3. Create s3 bucket and Dynamo DB table on AWS and provide respective details in config.js file under your lambda funtion: TABLE_NAME: <dynamoDB_table_name> S3_BUCKET: <s3_bucket_name>
4. Sample skill has session persistence built in that is optional.
5. Provide lambda execution roles for Dynamo DB and s3 permissions.

Step 5: Deploy updated skill code

Use ASK CLI to perform deployment. If set up correctly, it should publish both the skill's interaction model as well as lambda.

ask deploy [-p <ask_profile>]

Step 6: Test the deployed skill under your developer portal account.

Step 7: Afterwards, you can start customizing the skill!

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Additional Resources

Onboarding

• ASP Overview - Onboarding Alexa Smart Properties (ASP)
• Alexa Skill Kit - New to Alexa skills development? Start from here!

Documentation

• Official Alexa Smart Properties Documentation
• Official Alexa Skills Kit Documentation