Create a Custom Skill from a Quick Start Template


The quick start templates let you quickly set up a new skill with an interaction model and default endpoint. You can use this new skill to learn how skills work and experiment with the voice user interface, then customize the skill to make it your own.

Create a new skill with a quick start template

A skill created from a template is automatically configured with the following:

  • An interaction model specific to the template. For example, the "Quiz Game" template creates an interaction model with intents such as QuizIntent (to let the user ask to start a new quiz) and AnswerIntent (to get the user's answer to a question).
  • A default endpoint that provides the back-end code for the skill service. This endpoint lets you test the interaction model right away, but it does not reflect the template functionality. See Use the default endpoint to prototype and test the interaction model. Later, you can update the skill to use your own AWS Lambda function or web service endpoint.

The available templates are displayed in the developer console when you create a new custom skill.

  1. Go to https://developer.amazon.com/alexa/console/ask.
  2. Click Skills.

    The developer console opens and displays any skills you have already created.

  3. Click Create Skill.
  4. Enter the skill name and default language.

    • Skill name: This is the name customers will see when you publish the skill. You can edit this name later on the Distribution page.
    • Default language: You can add additional languages to the skill later.
  5. Click the Custom model.
  6. Click Create skill.
  7. Click the template you want to use and then click Choose.

After you create a skill from a template, the Build page displays the steps to customize the template. You can customize all aspects of the skill, just as you could in a skill created from scratch.

Use the default endpoint to prototype and test the interaction model

When you create a skill from a template, the skill is automatically configured with a default endpoint. Alexa sends requests to this endpoint when you invoke the skill. The default endpoint responds to each request with a response containing:

  • The type of the request, such as "LaunchRequest" or "Intent".
  • The name of the intent, if the request was an IntentRequest.
  • The locale for the IntentRequest, such as "en-US".
  • The names and values of all the slots defined for the intent.
    • Slots that do not have values are reported as "undefined".
    • If the slot value you provide in your utterance is defined as a synonym, the response includes both the defined value and the synonym you spoke.
  • The Dialog.Delegate directive if your utterance is part of an incomplete dialog. See Add and test dialogs with the default endpoint.

To test, invoke the skill and try out the sample utterances defined in the interaction model:

  1. Navigate the Custom > Interaction Model > Invocation page to see the skill's default invocation name.
  2. Navigate to the Custom > Interaction Model > Intents page and then go to a specific intent to see the utterances for the intent.
  3. Go to the Test page and click the option at the top to enable the skill.
  4. Invoke the skill with the invocation name and try the utterances for the intent.

For example:

User: Alexa, open quiz game

Alexa: Launch Request
User: Start a quiz

Alexa: Intent, QuizIntent. Locale, en-US.
User: tell me about California

Alexa: Intent, AnswerIntent. Locale, en-US. Slots. Abbreviation, undefined, StatehoodYear, undefined, StatehoodOrder, undefined, Capital, undefined, StateName, california.

You can test with a device or with the simulator on the Test page.

Test a skill created from a template with the Test page in the developer console
Test a skill created from a template with the Test page in the developer console
The default endpoint and the skill session

The default endpoint sets the shouldEndSession property to false on every response except for AMAZON.StopIntent. A value of false means the session remains open after Alexa speaks the response, so you can invoke another intent. To exit the session, say "Exit."

Experiment with changes to the interaction model

The default endpoint lets you experiment with the skill's interaction model without the need to edit any code. For example, you could do the following:

Be sure to save and build the interaction model after making any of these changes.

Add and test a dialog model with the default endpoint

A skill created from a quick start template does not include a dialog model by default. You can add a dialog model and then delegate the dialog to Alexa to test the dialog flow.

For details about different ways to delegate the dialog, see Delegate the Dialog to Alexa. The default endpoint is designed to respond with Dialog.Delegate for incomplete dialogs. Alternatively, you can configure the skill to delegate automatically.

Add a dialog model to a skill

To add a dialog model to a skill, do any of the following:

The following image shows a new "MyCustomIntent" intent with a slot called "color" that is configured as a required slot:

This color slot is required to fulfill the intent, and has a set of prompts and utterances used in the dialog
This color slot is required to fulfill the intent, and has a set of prompts and utterances used in the dialog

Test the dialog model with the default endpoint

To test a skill with a dialog model:

  1. Invoke an intent that has been configured with required slots, slot confirmation, intent confirmation, or slot validation rules. If the dialog is incomplete, Alexa prompts you for the missing information and listens for an utterance that fills the slot or confirms the data.
  2. The dialog continues until the dialog is complete.

When you invoke the intent, use an utterance that does not include slot values for required slots. This makes the dialog incomplete, so the default endpoint can respond with the Dialog.Delegate directive to prompt the user for the missing slot values.

In this example, a custom intent with two required slots (color and firstName) has been added to the skill:

User: Open space facts

Alexa: Launch Request
User: Invoke my custom intent

Alexa: What is your color? (This is a prompt defined in the dialog model for the color slot.)
User: Blue

Alexa: What is your name? (This is a prompt defined in the dialog model for the firstName slot.)
User: Sara

Alexa: Intent, MyCustomIntent. Locale, en-US. Slots. color, blue, firstName, sara,

For more details about managing dialogs in a skill, see:

Replace the default endpoint with skill code

To add real functionality to the skill, create your own endpoint to handle the requests. You can use sample code that matches the templates as a starting point and then further customize the code.

A link to a GitHub repository with Node.js sample code is provided in the Alexa developer console. For some templates, you can find samples in additional languages (such as Java) in the alexa-samples organization on GitHub.

To get the sample code that matches a template:

  1. Navigate to the Build > Custom > Endpoint page.
  2. In the box explaining that you must create your own endpoint, click the link to open the relevant GitHub repository.

    This warning is displayed when the skill is still referencing the default endpoint.

    If you don't see this endpoint warning box, this means your skill has already been updated to use a custom endpoint instead of the template default.

To connect the code to your skill, you need to create a new AWS Lambda function, upload the code, and then update the endpoint for the skill. Instructions for these steps are provided in the GitHub repository in the Lambda Function and Connect VUI to Code sections.

At this point, you can test the skill with a device or the Test page and see the actual skill functionality instead of the default endpoint:

User: Open quiz game

Alexa: Welcome to the United States Quiz Game! You can ask me about any of the fifty states and their capitals, or you can ask me to start a quiz. What would you like to do?

See the other instructions in the repository for more about testing and customizing the skill.


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Last updated: Jan 26, 2024