just who the heck am I?

Terrance Smith

• Dad of a 8 year old
• Owner of Hacker Ferret Software
• 9 years exp as a Software Developer
• 4 year exp System\Network Admin in US Army

Hacker Ferret Software

Who are you

Dearest audience 

Assumptions about You

• Experience building and hosting web apps
• Javascript || C# Experience 
• Azure or Amazon Web Services

What is alexa?

• Alexa
• Lex
• Alexa Voice Service (AVS)
• Alexa Skills Kit (ASK)

Alexa

your digital assistant

Lex

Your Conversational Interface

Alexa voice Service

"the alexa service"

Install on devices

Everything that works with Alexa

Alexa Skill Kit

The Alexa Skills Kit is a collection of self-service APIs, tools, documentation and code samples that make it fast and easy for you to add skills to Alexa.

Skill Kit
Core Concepts

• Skill Workflow
• Skill Terms
• Voice Design
• Examples

Skill Workflow

Step 1

Skill Workflow

Step 2

Parse text and determines Skill is "Dog Facts"

Send Http Post Request

with optional Json Payload to

Skill Endpoint 

Convert Audio Command into Text

Alexa Host Device (Echo)

Skill Workflow

Step 3

"Dog Fact"
Skill Endpoint

Web Service

Skill Workflow

Step 4

Plays Audio

Send Card Graphics to Alexa Companion App

Convert Post Response into Audio and Graphics

Alexa Host Device (Echo)

Skill Workflow

Step 5

Alexa Companion App

Voice Design

Wake Word

Invocation

Intent

Alexa

Ask A Dog Fact

NONE

Alexa

Tell MyCare

I'm in Danger

Alexa

Open Jepardy

NONE

Alexa

Tell FreeBusy

My name is Terrance

Skill Terms

Intent

/*
* An intent is the representation of some 
* action that needs to be performed.
*/
{
      "intent": "MyNameIsIntent", //<----Intent Name
      "slots": [
        {
          "name": "Name",
          "type": "LITERAL"
        }
}

Skill Terms

Slot

/*
* Slots are what you could consider 
* as arguments for an intent. 
*/
{
      "intent": "MyNameIsIntent", 
      "slots": [ //<----Slot Array
        {
          "name": "Name", //<----Slot Name
          "type": "LITERAL" //<----Slot Type
        }
}

Skill Terms

Full Intent JSON Listing

{
  "intents": [
    {
      "intent": "MyNameIsIntent",
      "slots": [
        {
          "name": "Name",
          "type": "LITERAL"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "intent": "WhatsMyNameIntent",
      "slots": []
    }
  ]
}

Skill Terms

Built-In Intents and Slots

• Built-In Intents List
• Slot Types

Prefer Built-In Intents and Slots over custom

Utterances

Phrases that you want your skill to be able to respond to.

MyNameIsIntent  my name is {john|Name}
MyNameIsIntent  I am {terrance|Name}
WhatsMyNameIntent whats my name
WhatsMyNameIntent what is my name
WhatsMyNameIntent say my name
WhatsMyNameIntent tell me my name
WhatsMyNameIntent tell me what my name is

ON phrasing utterances 

Kewl stuff in the wild

The Wild

• Amazon Skill Store
• Unofficial Skill Store
• hackster.io
• Alexa Devpost Contest
• The Alexa Fund
• Echosim

References

Resources

• ASK and AVS Resources
• What is ASK? A Quick and Dirty Explaination for Devs 
• Devpost Alexa
• Alexa Dev Ref
• ASK Dev Ref
• ASK Skill Design Best Practices

Testing
https://echosim.io/

References

Code Examples

• Node.js Skill Sample "How To"

• C# Alexa

• C# Alexa Lambda​

Design Guidelines

• Voice Design Best Practices

• Voice Design Handbook