Configuring Skill Instance

Skill

The Skill object is the integration of all your skill logic. It is responsible for initializing SDK utilities such as the AttributesManager and ServiceClientFactory and also kick off the request handling process.

Available Methods

invoke(requestEnvelope : RequestEnvelope, context? : any) : Promise<ResponseEnvelope>;

Skill Builders

The SkillBuilder provides helper functions for constructing the Skill, setting custom user agent and create lambda integration handler. ASK SDK v2 for Node.js provides different implementations of SkillBuilder that offer different level of customization support, which is available through SkillBuilders object.

The following example shows how to create skill builders using SkillBuilders provider.

Copied to clipboard.

const Alexa = require('ask-sdk');

const customSkillBuilder = Alexa.SkillBuilders.custom();
const standardSkillBuilder = Alexa.SkillBuilders.standard();

Copied to clipboard.

import { SkillBuilders } from 'ask-sdk';

const customSkillBuilder = SkillBuilders.custom();
const standardSkillBuilder = SkillBuilders.standard()

BaseSkillBuilder

BaseSkillBuilder includes the most essential methods for configuring Skill. It serves as the base for any future customization of the SkillBuilder.

Available Methods

addRequestHandler(matcher : ((handlerInput : HandlerInput) => Promise<boolean> | boolean) | string, executor : (handlerInput : HandlerInput) => Promise<Response> | Response) : this;
addRequestHandlers(...requestHandlers : RequestHandler[]) : this;
addRequestInterceptors(...executors : Array<RequestInterceptor | ((handlerInput : HandlerInput) => Promise<void> | void)>) : this;
addResponseInterceptors(...executors : Array<ResponseInterceptor | ((handlerInput : HandlerInput, response? : Response) => Promise<void> | void)>) : this;
addErrorHandler(matcher : (handlerInput : HandlerInput, error : Error) => Promise<boolean> | boolean, executor : (handlerInput : HandlerInput, error : Error) => Promise<Response> | Response) : this;
addErrorHandlers(...errorHandlers : ErrorHandler[]) : this;
withCustomUserAgent(customUserAgent : string) : this;
withSkillId(skillId : string) : this;
getSkillConfiguration() : SkillConfiguration;
create() : Skill;
lambda() : LambdaHandler;

CustomSkillBuilder

CustomSkillBuilder is available in both ask-sdk-core and ask-sdk package and includes all available methods from BaseSkillBuilder. In addition, CustomSkillBuilder also provides functions that allows you to register custom PersistentAdapter and ApiClient.

Available Methods

withPersistenceAdapter(persistenceAdapter : PersistenceAdapter) : this;
withApiClient(apiClient : ApiClient) : this;

StandardSkillBuilder

StandardSkillBuilder is available only in the ask-sdk package and includes all available methods from BaseSkillBuilder. It uses DynamoDbPersistenceAdapter and DefaultApiClient by default and provides convenient helper methods for configuring DynamoDbPersistenceAdapter.

Available Methods

withTableName(tableName : string) : this;
withAutoCreateTable(autoCreateTable : boolean) : this;
withPartitionKeyGenerator(partitionKeyGenerator : PartitionKeyGenerator) : this;
withDynamoDbClient(customDynamoDBClient : DynamoDB) : this;
Was this page helpful?

Last updated: Nov 28, 2023