Alexa skill not sending the correct intent

Question

I have the following settings for an Alexa skill that I'm writing:

Intent Schema

{
  "intents": [
    {
      "intent": "AddToGroceriesIntent",
      "slots": [
        {
          "name": "GroceriesItems",
          "type": "GROCERIES_ITEMS"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "intent": "GetGroceriesIntent"
    },
    {
      "intent": "ClearGroceriesIntent"
    },
    {
      "intent": "AMAZON.HelpIntent"
    },
    {
      "intent": "AMAZON.StopIntent"
    },
    {
      "intent": "AMAZON.CancelIntent"
    }
  ]
}

Sample Utterances

AddToGroceriesIntent to add {GroceriesItems}
AddToGroceriesIntent to add {GroceriesItems} to shopping list
AddToGroceriesIntent to add {GroceriesItems} to the shopping list
AddToGroceriesIntent to add {GroceriesItems} to the list
GetGroceriesIntent list
GetGroceriesIntent shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent for the shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent for the list
GetGroceriesIntent what's on my shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent what's on the shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent what's on the list
GetGroceriesIntent what's on my list
GetGroceriesIntent what is on my shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent what is on the shopping list
GetGroceriesIntent what is on the list
GetGroceriesIntent what is on my list
ClearGroceriesIntent to clear my shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to clear my list
ClearGroceriesIntent to clear the shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to clear the list
ClearGroceriesIntent to empty my shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to empty my list
ClearGroceriesIntent to empty the shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to empty the list
ClearGroceriesIntent to delete my shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to delete my list
ClearGroceriesIntent to delete the shopping list
ClearGroceriesIntent to delete the list

When Alexa hears:

alexa ask my app to clear my shopping list

As expected, the correct ClearGroceriesIntent is sent. However, when Alexa hears:

alexa ask my app to clear the shopping list

The GetGroceriesIntent is sent instead.

This issue can't be replicated by the Service Simulator - it works fine then. It's only during speech that it gets muddled up, even though (according to the history) Alexa heard the exact same thing as what I type into the test form.

(All of the AddToGroceriesIntent and GetGroceriesIntent utterances work as expected)

do you need the intent name in the sample utterance when using the skills UI? — user3437721

Dana Dana · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-03T01:12:25

One suggestion that might help is to change your sample utterances to remove the connecting words - in your case 'to' and 'for' shouldn't be in the sample utterances, reference these docs under 'Invoking a Skill with a Specific Request (Intent)'. I'm not sure if that will fix the problem but good to do anyway. If the problem persists, you may have a situation that maps to this discussion about how the NLP always returns one of your intents - even if it doesn't understand, it just picks one. Maybe it is routinely picking GetGroceriesIntent when it doesn't understand.

Alexa skill not sending the correct intent

1 Answers