Test and Debug Your Skill
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) includes tools to help you test and debug your skill. The types of testing that you do depends on the voice interaction model for your skill type.
Use the following guides to help you learn how to test and debug an Alexa skill:
- Test and Debug a Custom Skill
- Test and Debug Your Smart Home Skill
- Music, Radio, and Podcast Skill Testing Guide
- Video Skill Testing Guide
Before you publish your skill, you can beta test the skill with a small group of friendly users.
Test for the voice interaction model
The following table shows the most widely used test tools for the pre-built and custom voice interaction models.
| Tool | Prebuilt | Custom |
|---|---|---|
|
Alexa simulator in the Alexa developer console |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Alexa simulator in Visual Studio Code |
— |
✔ |
|
✔ |
✔ | |
|
— |
✔ | |
|
— |
✔ | |
|
— |
✔ | |
|
— |
✔ | |
|
✔ |
— | |
|
Smart Home test tools for automated testing |
✔ |
— |
|
Skill Testing using Skill Management API for automated testing |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Alexa app for Android and iOS |
✔ |
✔ |
|
✔ |
✔ |
Test your skill with the Alexa app
You can use the Alexa app installed on your desktop or your iOS or Android mobile device to test your skill .
Make sure that the locale of your Alexa app matches at least one of the locales available for your skill. For example, if your skill has the en-US locale, set your Alexa app to English (United States).
To set the locale for your Alexa app
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile device.
- Navigate to More > Settings > Alexa on This Phone.
- Set the language under Language to the locale for your skill.
Test your skill on an Alexa-enabled device
To test your skill with an Alexa-enabled device, such as an Amazon Echo, register the device with the same email address that you used to sign up for your developer account on the Amazon developer portal. Make sure that the locale of your device matches at least one of the locales available for your skill. Then, you can invoke your skill with the wake word and your invocation name: "Alexa, open invocation name."
If you configure your device with an account other than your developer account, reset the device, and then re-register it with your developer account. For details, see the help for your specific device:
If you want to add a non-developer account as a user of the device, you can use the Household feature.
Additional resources
Use the following additional resources to help you learn how to test an Alexa skill.
Blog posts
- Unit Testing: Creating Functional Alexa Skills
- TestFlow: Simulate Conversations with Your Alexa Skill Code to Ease Debugging
- Building Engaging Alexa Skills: Why Testing and Automation Matter