Training for the Alexa Skills Kit
Learn to design and develop for voice with Alexa
Learn to design and build engaging voice experiences. Check out these training resources by our own Alexa evangelists as well as third-party education organizations. Community members like our Alexa Champions have also contributed helpful materials to share their passion for Alexa skill building. Dive in and start learning!
Fact Skill Template
Official Alexa training
First-timers, start here. Build an Alexa skill similar to "Fact of the Day" or "Flash Cards."
Trivia Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Build a trivia skill and submit it for certification.
How-to Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Create a simple, direction-based skill for Alexa.
Alexa Skill Quick Start in Python
Official Alexa training
Quickly build a simple Alexa skill that can run on any Alexa-enabled device.
10 Tips for Effective Skill Card Design
Official Alexa training
Check out our new guide, Best Practices for Skill Card Design, to learn how to best present information on cards for easy consumption.
Best Practices for Skill Card Design
Official Alexa training
Cards can be powerful additions to the user experience with Alexa. This guide provides design best practices for both simple and standard cards.
How to Build a Multi-Language Skill
Official Alexa training
Now that Alexa is multi-lingual, learn how to deliver the right content to your customers in each of the supported regions—all from a single code base.
Five Steps before Developing a Smart Home Skill
Official Alexa training
Learn what steps to take before developing with the Smart Home Skill API.
Coding Smart Home Skill Adapter Directives Using Node.js
Official Alexa training
See how to manage the code workflow for a smart home skill adapter using Node.js.
Managing Device Discovery for Your Alexa Smart Home Skill
Official Alexa training
Learn the process of device discovery and how to support it in code for your smart home skill.
Fundamentals of Smart Home Device Control
Official Alexa training
Learn how to respond to control directives in code to turn devices on or off, set temperature, and set percentages.
Creating Your Skill with the Flash Briefing Skill API
Official Alexa training
Learn how to add feeds to flash briefings, which delivers pre-recorded audio and text-to-speech (TTS) updates to customers.
How to Build More Engaging Skills Using AWS
Official Alexa training
Do more with your skills with these five ideas on using AWS services to unlock your skills’ potential.
By Envato
Use the Alexa Skills Kit, AWS Lambda, and some template source code from Amazon to create a trivia game that can be played using an Amazon Echo device or any Alexa-enabled device.
By Brian Donohue on hack.guides()
Learn how to navigate the Amazon developer screens and create your first Alexa skill. If you are a novice developer, you will appreciate the clear screenshots and fun animated GIFs that appear throughout the tutorial.
Introduction to the Alexa Skills Kit
Official Alexa training
Be ready for customers whenever they ask for you, no hands required. Join Amazon's Dave Isbitski for an introduction to creating voice experiences for Amazon Alexa.
Voice Design 101
Official Alexa training
Enable customers to interact with devices and services in a more intuitive way using their voice. Join Amazon’s Dave Isbitski for an introduction to voice design.
On Pluralsight
Get an introduction to voice design and learn the difference between the Alexa Skills Kit and the Alexa Voice Service.
By RAIN
Learn development techniques for the Alexa Skills Kit from RAIN, a digital consultancy.
By A Cloud Guru
Learn how to build three different skills including an interactive story.
By A Cloud Guru
Never coded before? No problem. Learn how to build 10 different skills for Alexa.
By Coding Dojo
Calling aspiring and established Python coders alike! Learn how to build skills for Alexa.
By Treehouse
Interested in building for Alexa but don't know any code? Learn how to build and submit a new Alexa skill with this course.
Alexa Dev Chat Podcast
Our biweekly podcast showcases the Alexa developer community and the Amazon teams building Alexa technology. Tune in for discussions on all things Alexa including the Alexa Skills Kit, Alexa Voice Service, natural language understanding, voice recognition, and first-hand stories from developers like you.
Flash Cards Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Create a simple skill that contains small bits of information as an aid to learning, like "Chemistry Flash Cards" or "Nursing Flash Cards."
Decision Tree Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Create skills that ask you a series of questions then give you an answer.
Game Helper Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Build a user guide that teaches the user how to play chess.
Calendar Reader Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Create a skill that reads your calendar, like "Event Calendar" or "Community Calendar."
City Guide Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Build a skill that shares details about your favorite spots in the city.
Quiz Game Skill Template
Official Alexa training
Provide the data and the number of properties in that data, and Alexa will dynamically build a quiz game for you.
Publishing Your Skill Code to Lambda via the Command Line Interface
Official Alexa training
Set up a deploy script, so that you can manage your code and modules locally and easily publish changes into AWS Lambda via the command line interface (CLI).
Using Alexa Skills Kit and AWS IoT to Voice Control Connected Devices
Official Alexa training
Connect and control any device using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Alexa Skills Kit using AWS IoT, a managed service that will enable you to connect securely your objects to AWS.
5 Steps to Seamlessly Link Your Alexa Skill with Login with Amazon
Official Alexa training
Discover how to use account linking with Login with Amazon to seamlessly integrate your Alexa skills with third-party application.
Debugging AWS Lambda Code Locally
Official Alexa training
Reduce skill development time by debugging your skill code in a local environment. Step through your code line by line while preserving roles and AWS services used in the skill when running in AWS Lambda.
Create Your Backend with CloudFormation
Official Alexa training
Advance your skill creation by adding some automation, version control, and repeatability to skill deployments.
From "G'day" to "Guten Tag"
Official Alexa training
Master two concepts: 1. separating content from logic, and 2. using the locale attribute to serve the right content to the right users.
How to Set up Amazon API Gateway as a Proxy to Debug Account Linking
Official Alexa training
Use Amazon API Gateway and configure it to act as a HTTP proxy, sitting between Alexa and your OAuth server.
Sample Skill Templates Add Support for Multiple Languages
Official Alexa training
Add all three supported languages to your skills with the updated Alexa SDK for Node.js.
By Alexa Champion John Wheeler
Get familiar with Flask-Ask, a new Python micro-framework that significantly lowers the bar for developing Alexa skills. Flask-Ask is a Flask extension that makes building voice user interfaces with the Alexa Skills Kit easy and fun.
By Alexa Champion John Wheeler
Deploy your Alexa skills built with Flask-Ask, a Python framework for rapid skill development, to AWS Lambda.
By Craig Bilner on hack.guides()
Design, build, and test an Alexa skill that implements an adventure game. Experienced Node.js developers who are new to Alexa will appreciate the thorough breakdown of the ASK functionality and recommended project structure.
Advanced Training by Big Nerd Ranch
Official Alexa training
Watch these six educational modules to dive into building voice user interfaces using the Alexa Skills Kit. Learn the Alexa skill architecture and interface configuration, slots and utterances, sessions and voice user interfaces, persistence, account linking, and certification and testing.
Using SSML in Alexa Skills
Official Alexa training
Watch this 20-minute video to learn how to add SSML support to your Alexa skill. Learn how to pause Alexa’s speech, change how she pronounces a word, and create and embed your own audio tags.
YouTube videos
Official Alexa training
Understand the benefits of developing skills and integrations for Alexa. Take advantage of Alexa’s new user-interface designs to build quickly for free and reach more customers.
On Pluralsight
Learn the foundations of developing voice-enabled apps for Amazon Echo, and build your own custom Alexa skill in C# and ASP.NET Web API.
By Alexa Champion John Wheeler
Develop a memory game that asks users to repeat three numbers backwards. Gain exposure to requests, intent slots, and session management with the Alexa Skills Kit and Flask-Ask.
By Udacity
Become an AI engineer with Udacity’s Artificial Intelligence Nanodegree program which is accessible to virtually anyone on the planet. Udacity has collaborated with leading innovators in the field to bring you world-class curriculum, expert instructors, and exclusive hiring opportunities.
By PythonProgramming.net
Use these instructions and code snippets to build an Alexa skill in Python that goes to the World News subreddit, a popular feed on news aggregator Reddit, and reads the latest headlines.
By A Cloud Guru
Get a look at the wide range of Alexa features , including advanced functionality like account linking, state management, and audio streaming.
