With an Alexa-hosted skill, you can build, edit, and publish a skill without leaving the developer console. The skill includes a code editor for managing and deploying the backend code for your skill. For details on what the Alexa-Hosted skills service provides, open this page in a new tab.
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Go to the Amazon Developer Portal. In the top-right corner of the screen, click the "Sign In" button. (If you don't already have an account, you will be able to create a new one for free.)
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Once you have signed in, move your mouse over the Your Alexa Consoles text at the top of the screen and Select the Skills Link.
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From the Alexa Skills Console select the Create Skill button near the top-right of the list of your Alexa Skills.
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Give your new skill a Name. This is the name that will be shown in the Alexa Skills Store, and the name your users will refer to. Also change the locale if so desired.
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Keep the default Custom model selected, and scroll the page down.
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Choose Alexa-Hosted for the method to host your skill's backend resources. Scroll backup and select the Create Skill button at the top right. It will take a minute to create your Alexa hosted skill, then you will be taken to the Build tab of the console.
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Build the Interaction Model for your skill
- On the left hand navigation panel, select the JSON Editor tab under Interaction Model. In the textfield provided, replace any existing code with the code provided in the Interaction Model (make sure to pick the model that matches your skill's language). Click Save Model.
- If you want to change the skill invocation name, select the Invocation tab. Enter a Skill Invocation Name. This is the name that your users will need to say to start your skill.
- Click "Build Model".
Note: You should notice that Intents and Slot Types will auto populate based on the JSON Interaction Model that you have now applied to your skill. Feel free to explore the changes here, to learn about Intents, Slots, and Utterances open our technical documentation in a new tab.
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Optional: Select an intent by expanding the Intents from the left side navigation panel. Add some more sample utterances for your newly generated intents. Think of all the different ways that a user could request to make a specific intent happen. A few examples are provided. Be sure to click Save Model and Build Model after you're done making changes here.
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If your interaction model builds successfully, proceed to the next step. If not, you should see an error. Try to resolve the errors. In our next step of this guide, we will be creating our code.
If you get an error from your interaction model, check through this list:
- Did you copy & paste the provided code correctly?
- Did you accidentally add any characters to the Interaction Model or Sample Utterances?
