Sparky - Alexa Skill

My little boy often asks "is today a school day". Now he can ask Alexa.

Usage

Since this is a custom skill you need to mention the intent (skill name) so it sounds a little clumsy. By calling the skill "Sparky" it sounds a little more natural.

• Alexa, ask Sparky is it a school day
• Alexa, ask Sparky is it a school day tomorrow
• Alexa, ask Sparky is Friday a school day

Installation

Note that I didn't publish this on the skills marketplace. I only have this on my device via my amazon developer account.

First we create the lambda function

• In AWS create a lambda function, call it Sparky
• Use the code in SparkyLambda.js with a node.js 6.x runtime
• Add an Alexa Skills Kit trigger
• Copy the ARN at the top-right of the configuration page

Now we setup the Alexa Skill

• In developer.amazon.com under the Alexa tab click Alexa Skills Kit, create new custom model
• Language = "English UK", name = "Sparky", invocation name = "sparky" (no for audio/video/render)
• Use the code in intent-schema.json for the intent schema field
• Sample utterances are:
  • SparkyIntent is it a school day
  • SparkyIntent is it a school day {Date}
  • SparkyIntent is {Date} a school day
• Under configuration use Lambda with the above ARN

Now verify the skills is enabled

• In alexa.amazon.co.uk click Skills then "Your Skills" at the top-right to verify Sparky is enabled