Upgrade to a Multi-capability Skill (MCS)

Multi-capability skills (MCS) enable you to create a smart home skill that extends the built-in support for certain utterances with your own custom voice interaction model. For example, have your skill use the built-in support for utterances that turn a device on or off, or have your skill support custom utterances, such as "Alexa, ask invocation name what can this skill do?"

Prerequisites

To use the MCS feature, your skill must be a smart home skill or a custom skill.

Upgrade an existing skill to an MCS skill

You can upgrade your existing skill to an MCS skill by adding custom or smart home capabilities.

To upgrade an existing skill to an MCS skill

  1. Log in to the Alexa developer console.
  2. From the skill list, select the skill that you want to upgrade.
  3. In the left pane, click MODELS.

  4. Enable the Status toggle for the model that you're adding to the skill.

    The text for each model includes reminders for the prerequisites for adding that model:

    • Custom model – Make sure to set the endpoints and interaction model for the skill.

    • Smart home model – Make sure to set the endpoint for smart home and to set account linking for the skill.

  5. To save the updated skill, click Save.

Delete a model from a skill

You can delete a model from a skill if your skill or model meets either of the following conditions:

  • Your skill is still in the development stage and not published yet, you can delete a model from your skill.

  • If the skill is live, but you haven't yet published the model itself as live, you can delete this model.

    For example, if you have a live skill with smart home model only, you can try upgrading to MCS by adding the custom model. If you change your mind, you can delete the newly added custom model before publishing the skill with that model.

To delete a model from a skill in the development stage

  1. Log in to the developer console.
  2. From the skill list, select the skill that you want to delete the model from.
  3. In the left pane, click MODELS.

  4. To delete that model from the skill, toggle the section box for that model to the disabled position.

    A prompt opens asking you to confirm your changes.

  5. To save the updated skill, click Save.

Perform a trial upgrade to MCS

If you have a published skill with either a smart home or custom interaction model, you can try out MCS to determine if it fits your users' needs before publishing your skill with MCS.

To perform a trial upgrade of a development stage skill

  • Upgrade the skill and then test it with the new model with your users. When you're ready decide whether to publish your upgraded skill or not, you have two options:
    • If you prefer to revert your skill, follow the instructions to delete a model before publishing the skill to production.

    -Or-

    • If you like the MCS feature and want to publish the MCS version for customers, submit the upgraded skill for certification.
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Last updated: Jan 26, 2024