Custom Triggers for Routines FAQs

The following list provides answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the custom triggers for routines feature.

Q: What happens to my triggers after the developer preview?

You should keep sending trigger instance requests when conditions are met during developer preview, even if you discontinue your triggers. Amazon will introduce a deprecation process when the developer preview ends. Until then, if your trigger requests stop, routines stop working for customers who rely on your triggers.

Q: What happens if a customer updates their trigger in their routine?

When a customer updates their trigger, Alexa makes a Routines.Trigger.Create and then a Routines.Trigger.Delete Service Provider Interface (SPI) call in that respective order to your skill. For details about the SPI, see Routines Trigger Service Provider Interface. If the customer updates their routine without editing the trigger, Alexa doesn't make any SPI calls.

Q: What should I do if I want to provide customized options in my trigger for each customer?

Use the dynamic parameters feature. For details, see Dynamic Parameters Examples.

Q: How do I deactivate a trigger?

To deactivate a trigger, delete its corresponding trigger definition file without deleting the /skill-package/routines/triggers/ directory and then re-deploy your skill. In this developer preview phase, you also need to notify Amazon so that Amazon deactivates the triggers from the Alexa service.

Q: Can I directly choose a Routines skill type on the Alexa developer console?

In this developer preview release, you can't create a Routines skill directly on the developer console.

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Last updated: Nov 27, 2023