Starter Kit¶

This project is designed to be a simple template for your new skills. With some well thought defaults that have proven useful when developing real life skills.

Directory Structure¶

It has the following directory structure

.
├── README.md
├── config
│   ├── env.js
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── local.json.example
│   ├── production.json
│   └── staging.json
├── gulpfile.js
├── package.json
├── serverless.yml
├── services
├── skill
│   ├── MainStateMachine.js
│   ├── index.js
│   ├── variables.js
│   └── views.js
├── speechAssets
│   ├── IntentSchema.json
│   ├── SampleUtterances.txt
│   └── customSlotTypes
├── test
└── www
    ├── infrastructure
    │   └── mount.js
    ├── routes
    │   ├── index.js
    │   └── skill.js
    └── server.js

config¶

By default your skill will have the following environments:

local
staging
production

What environment you’re is determined in the config/env.js module using the following code:

'use strict';

function getEnv() {
  if (process.env.NODE_ENV) return process.env.NODE_ENV;
  if (process.env.AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME) {
    // TODO put your own lambda function name here
    if (process.env.AWS_LAMBDA_FUNCTION_NAME === '') return 'production';
    return 'staging';
  }

  return 'local';
}

module.exports = getEnv();

skill¶

This is where your code to handle alexa events goes, you will usually have a State Machine definition, this will include states, middleware and a Model, Views and Variables

speechAssets¶

This should be a version controlled copy of your intent schema, sample utterrances and custom slots.

www¶

A standard express project configured to serve your skill in the /skill route. Combined with ngrok this is a great tool when developing or debugging.

services¶

Just a common place to put models and libraries

test¶

You write tests right?

gulpfile¶

A gulp runner configured with a watch task that starts your express server and listens for changes to reload your application.

serverless.yml¶

The serverless framework is a tool that helps you manage your lambda applications, assuming you have your AWS credentials setup properly this starter kit defines the very minimum needed so you can deploy your skill to lambda with the following command:

$ sls deploy

Running the project¶

Clone the voxa repository
Create a new skill project using the samples/starterKit directory as a basis
Make sure you’re running node 4.3, this is easiest with nvm
Create a config/local.json file using config/local.json.example as an example
Run the project with gulp watch
At this point you should start ngrok http 3000 and configure your skill in the Amazon Developer panel to use the ngrok https endpoint.