Steps to Create a Meetings Skill

Take the following steps to create a meetings skill.

Create a meetings skill by using the developer console

Use the Alexa Skills Kit developer console to set up your meetings skill:

  1. Sign in to the developer console. If you don't already have a developer account, create an account, which is free.
  2. Click Create Skill.
  3. Enter a name for your skill.
  4. Under Choose a model to add to your skill, select Meetings.
  5. Click Create skill.
  6. On the left side of the page, click Endpoint.
  7. Copy the contents of the Your skill ID box. The value is in the format amzn1.ask.skill.<identifier>. You will need the skill ID later when you configure your AWS Lambda function.

Create an AWS Lambda function

Create an AWS Lambda function to host the back-end code for your meetings skill:

  1. Sign in to the AWS Lambda console.
  2. In the top right corner, verify that US East (N. Virginia) is selected.
  3. Click Create function.
  4. In the upper right corner, copy the ARN for the Lambda function. The ARN is in the format arn:aws:lambda:<region>:<aws_account_id>:function:<name>.

Add the AWS Lambda function to your skill by using the developer console

Add the ARN for the AWS Lambda function to your skill configuration:

  1. Open the Alexa Skills Kit Developer Console.
  2. In the list of skills, click the name of your meetings skill.
  3. On the left side of the page, click Endpoint.
  4. In the Default endpoint box, paste the ARN for your Lambda function, and then click Save.

Configure account linking

For a meetings skill, account linking is required. People in your organization can use the meetings skill to reserve rooms when there is a linked account in your room-booking service that has access to make reservations. For information about account linking, see Account Linking for Smart Home and Other Domains.

To configure account linking by using the developer console:

  1. Open the Alexa Skills Kit developer console.
  2. In the list of skills, click the name of your meetings skill.
  3. On the left side of the page, click ACCOUNT LINKING.
  4. Enable Allow users to create an account or link to an existing account.
  5. Fill out the Security Provider Information.

Create your meetings skill by using the ASK CLI

In addition to the developer console, you can also use the Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface (ASK CLI) to create and manage skills from the command line.

To install the ASK CLI, complete steps 1 through 3 of the Quick Start ASK CLI. To see a video demonstrating how to use the ASK CLI, see ASK CLI Setup on YouTube.

To create a meetings skill using the ASK CLI, first create a Lambda function for your skill's code and know the ARN of the Lambda function.

Next create a manifest file for your meetings skill. For more information, see Meetings Skill Manifest. The apis object must contain alexaForBusiness.

To create your skill, run the following command. After the command completes, copy your new skill id.

ask api create-skill -f <your-manifest-file.json>

Create a trigger for your Lambda function

Next add a trigger to connect your Lambda function and your skill.

To create a trigger for your Lambda function:

  1. Sign in to the AWS Lambda console.
  2. Find the Lambda function for your skill, then click on it.
  3. On the left side of the page, for Add triggers, choose Alexa Skills Kit.
  4. At the bottom of the page, for Skill ID verification, select Enable (recommended). For Skill ID, paste the skill ID.
  5. At the bottom of the page, click the Add button. Then, at the top of the page, click the Save button.

Create your local project directory

After you create a skill with the preceding command, use the following ASK CLI command to create a local project directory for the skill. Before you use this command, make sure that your skill name is unique among your skills, because the name is used to create (or overwrite) the local project directory. In the following command, replace amzn1.ask.skill.d12647e2-4e5b-4870-9f3c-09a1b88da1a4 with your actual skill ID.

ask clone -s amzn1.ask.skill.d12647e2-4e5b-4870-9f3c-09a1b88da1a4

Submit your skill by using the ASK CLI

Before you submit your skill, validate that all the required fields are completed. Run the following command and resolve any issues.

ask validate --skill-id <your-skill-id> -l en-us

Use the following command to submit your skill.

ask submit --skill-id <your-skill-id>

Next steps

To get started testing your meetings skill, see Meetings Skill Testing Guide.

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