Getting Started: Develop an Amazon Alexa Skill

What is this?

This is the Getting Started: Develop an Amazon Alexa Skill workshop as part of the events organised by the Melbourne Amazon Alexa Meetup. Please click on the link to join the meetup and become part of our growing community.

The repository contains instructions and assets to build for first Amazon Alexa skill with Node JS code hosted on AWS (Lambda). It is split into 3 branches, each containing instructions to get your first Alexa skill published.

Master: This branch (current page) provides an introduction and instructions on creating the required AWS accounts. Step-1: This branch creates and sets up the Alexa Developer Skill. Step-2: This branch creates the AWS Lambda function that contains the logic for the skill. Step-3: This branch shows you how to publish the skill to the Alexa Skills store.

What is an Alexa skill?

Alexa is Amazon's voice service and the brain behind millions of devices including Amazon Echo. Alexa provides capabilities, or skills, that enable customers to create a more personalised experience. There are now thousands of skills available in around the world, including in Australia and New Zealand, from brands like Qantas, Westpac, Sky TV, NAB, Taste.com.au, SBS News, as well as innovative designers and developers.

This skill will give you an overview of the following components:

• [Utternaces]
• [Entities]
• [Intents]

Amazon config:

This skill uses the following two platforms:

• Alexa Developer: Alexa Developer is Amazon's platform that is used to publish Alexa Skills.
• AWS Lambda: AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. You pay only for the compute time you consume - there is no charge when your code is not running.

Get Started:

What you'll need

• An AWS account allowing you to create a new Alexa Skill and Lambdas

Create your free Alexa developer account with the instructions below before we begin:

• Go to www.amazon.com.au and create an account.
• Sign into your Alexa developer account at https://developer.amazon.com/alexa using the same email for your www.amazon.com.au account.
• Sign up for an AWS account if you don't already have one here: https://aws.amazon.com. Complete the verification steps for enabling an Amazon verified account, including payment details, profile info, and phone verification as applicable.

Ready? Move to the step-1 branch to create your Alexa Skill. Click here or following the screenshot below.