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balloob merged 1 commit into from
Jan 23, 2018
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Document new alexa smart_home option #4493

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45 changes: 45 additions & 0 deletions source/_components/alexa.markdown
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Expand Up @@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ There are a few ways that you can use Amazon Echo and Home Assistant together.

- [Build custom commands to use](#i-want-to-build-custom-commands-to-use-with-echo)
- [Create a new Flash Briefing source](#flash-briefing-skills)
- [Use the Smart Home API to control lights, etc](#smart-home)
- Alternative: use the [Emulated Hue component][emulated-hue-component] to trick Alexa to thinking Home Assistant is a Philips Hue hub.

Amazon has released [Echosim], a website that simulates the Alexa service in your browser. That way it is easy to test your skills without having access to a physical Amazon Echo.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -332,6 +333,50 @@ Please refer to the [Amazon documentation][flash-briefing-api-docs] for more inf
- Having passed all validations to reach this screen, you can now click on "< Back to All Skills" as your flash briefing is now available as in "Development" service.
- To invoke your flash briefing, open the Alexa app on your phone or go to the [Alexa Settings Site][alexa-settings-site], open the "Skills" configuration section, select "Your Skills", scroll to the bottom, tap on the Flash Briefing Skill you just created, enable it, then manage Flash Briefing and adjust ordering as necessary. Finally ask your Echo for your "news","flash briefing", or "briefing".


## {% linkable_title Smart Home %}

While the Skills API described above allows for arbitrary intents, all
utterances must begin with "Alexa, tell $invocation_name ..."

The [Emulated Hue component][emulated-hue-component] provides a simpler
interface such as, "Alexa, turn on the kitchen light". However it has some
limitations since everything looks like a light bulb.

Amazon provides a Smart Home API for richer home automation control. It takes
considerable effort to configure. The easy solution is to use
[Home Assistant Cloud](/components/cloud/).

If you don't want to use Home Assistant Cloud and are willing to do the
integration work yourself, Home Assistant can expose an HTTP API which makes
the integration work easier. Example configuration:

```yaml
alexa:
smart_home:
filter:
include_entities:
- light.kitchen
- light.kitchen_left
include_domains:
- switch
exclude_entities:
- switch.outside
entity_config:
light.kitchen:
name: Custom Name for Alexa
description: The light in the kitchen
switch.stairs:
display_categories: LIGHT
```

This exposes an HTTP POST endpoint at `http://your_hass_ip/api/alexa/smart_home`
which accepts and returns messages conforming to the
[Smart Home v3 payload](https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/smart-home-skill-api-message-reference.html).
You must then create an Amazon developer account with an Alexa skill and Lambda
function to integrate this endpoint. See
[Haaska](https://github.com/auchter/haaska) for an example.
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@balloob balloob Jan 23, 2018 •
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Does it still make sense to link to Haaska? It really only proxies requests now. I wonder if there are better things to link to

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@bitglue bitglue Jan 23, 2018

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I don't know of anything better, and I figured it already has significant adoption so might as well keep it provided the owner will have the change. I did intend to clean up the docs there a bit, though now that mine is working, who knows 😉


[amazon-dev-console]: https://developer.amazon.com
[flash-briefing-api]: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit/flash-briefing
[flash-briefing-api-docs]: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/docs/flash-briefing-skill-api-feed-reference
Expand Down