Test in the Web Simulator

You can test your add-on without a physical device by using the web simulator in the Alexa developer console. The simulator maintains the session with your add-on so you can test multi-turn conversations and complete workflows. You interact with your add-on using text, and you can view response details and device logs to troubleshoot issues. You can also use the simulator to connect your add-on to a physical device to test on a device.

Before you begin

You must deploy your add-on before you can test it in the simulator. For deployment steps, see one of the following:

Category action add-on—Deploy the add-on (Category Action)
Category MCP add-on—Connect your MCP server to Alexa+
MCP Toolkit add-on—Connect your MCP server to Alexa+ (MCP Toolkit)

Open the simulator

After you are logged in to the console, do one of the following:

From the My Add-ons page: Find your add-on and click Test in Simulator.
From anywhere in the console: Click the Simulator button in the left-hand navigation.
Direct URL: Navigate to Alexa+ Simulator.

If you did not open the simulator from a specific add-on, click the Add-on drop-down in the top bar and select the add-on you want to test.

Simulator interface

The simulator interface contains the following elements:

Element	Location	Description
Add-on menu	Top left	Select the add-on you want to test.
Mode menu	Top bar	Choose between Isolation and Global testing modes.
Stage menu	Top bar	Select the add-on stage to test against (development, certification, certified, or live).
Integration menu	Top bar	Select the specific integration to test.	alexaplus-sdks/Alexa-simulator
Response Ingress	Left panel	Displays the conversation between you and Alexa. Includes a New Chat button to start a new session.
Ask Alexa	Bottom of left panel	Text input field where you type your test utterances. No wake word is needed.
Visual Preview	Right panel (top)	Shows how content renders on an Alexa device screen. Toggle between Echo Show (small) and Echo Show (large) to preview different screen sizes.
Response detail	Right panel (bottom)	Contains three tabs: Alexa Response Detail, Device Logs, and Visual Trace. Use these to inspect events, directives, and visual rendering details.
Physical Device Config	Top right	Opens the Configuration Override panel to route test sessions to a physical Alexa device.

Select the testing mode

Use the Mode drop-down in the top bar to choose a testing mode:

Isolation — Routes all requests exclusively to your add-on, bypassing Alexa's natural routing. Use this mode to validate your add-on's tools and responses without interference from other add-ons or built-in Alexa capabilities.
Global — Full Alexa+ routing is active, the same as in production. All other add-ons and built-in capabilities are available alongside yours. Use this mode to verify that Alexa+ correctly selects your add-on based on customer intent.

Select the add-on stage

Use the Stage drop-down in the top bar to choose which version of your add-on to test against:

Stage	Description
development	Your in-progress add-on. Only accessible to your developer account. Use this while building and iterating.
certification	The version currently under review for certification.
certified	The most recently certified version, before it has been published live.
live	Your published production add-on. Mirrors the exact experience customers receive. Use this to verify post-publish behavior.

Test on a physical device

You can route your simulator session to a physical Alexa device for on-device testing.

Click Physical Device Config in the top-right corner of the simulator.
In the Configuration Override panel, select your device from the Device drop-down.
Verify the Integration and Integration Stage under Set Overrides.
Click Save.

After saving, test utterances you send through the simulator are routed to the selected device. This lets you validate voice interaction quality, multimodal UI rendering, and end-to-end latency on a real device.

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Last updated: Jul 16, 2026