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In this tutorial, you use the Alexa developer console to walk through the steps to build a fictional smart home add-on that connects to Alexa. This add-on enables users to control a virtual light bulb with their voice. Smart home add-ons use the pre-built voice interaction model and Alexa defines the set of utterances for you. For a device, such as a light bulb, that has states of On and Off, Alexa supports the following user utterances. Alexa converts the user utterances into directives with a specific JSON structure. Then, Alexa sends the directives to your add-on. Your add-on processes the directives and performs the requested action by communicating with your device in the cloud. Your add-on sends responses back to Alexa indicating success or failure of the request. The response includes the current state of the device. For details about smart home add-ons, see Connect Your Device Cloud with Smart Home Add-ons.

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Prerequisites

Before you start, you need an Amazon developer account. You can use an existing Amazon account to sign in, or you can create a new Amazon developer account. The account is free. To host your smart home add-on, you need an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account in addition to your Amazon developer account. The AWS account gives you access to resources as part of the free tier of services. To test the add-on, you need an Alexa-enabled device, or you can download the Amazon Alexa app to your mobile device. For instructions about how to download the Alexa app, see Download the Alexa app on the Amazon.com website. Make sure that you sign in to the Alexa app on your mobile device with the same credentials as your Alexa developer account.

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Steps to build a smart home add-on

To build a smart home add-on that controls a virtual light bulb, complete the following steps.

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Other learning resources

The smart home add-on that you build in this tutorial lets the user control their light bulb from Alexa. You also want to let Alexa know when the state of the bulb changes externally so that Alexa can report the correct status in the Alexa app. For example, someone might turn off the bulb manually or the bulb might lose connectivity to your add-on. To report state to Alexa , you send state and change reports. After you complete the tutorial, learn how to set up your add-on to send change reports with Smart Home Add-on Sample: Send Change Report on GitHub. This tutorial focuses on a simple smart home add-on to control a light bulb. Alexa supports many types of smart home add-ons. For details, see Smart Home Add-on Types. You can create smart home add-ons in other languages. For details, see Develop Smart Home Add-ons for Multiple Languages. Language support varies by interface. For details, see List of Alexa Interfaces and Supported Languages.
Last modified on May 1, 2026