Alexa Smarthome-Skill without AWS

0
votes

Im a little confuse atm.

Is it possible to build a Alexa Smarthome Skill without hosting it on AWS.

For my last custom skill I used Alexa-App but this doesn't support the Smarthome-API from Amazon, as far as I know. Also I did not found any library that does support the Smarthome-API.

Maybe you can Help me find a lib, so I can host my Smart home-Skill on my own Server.

Pref language: JavaScript and Ruby

1
javascriptrubyamazon-web-servicesalexa
This is an “I want a pony” question and it’s too broad to give a specific technical answer, making it off-topic here on Stack Overflow. You’ll need to attempt to solve this problem and show your code so we can understand what you’re trying to do on a technical level as well as to demonstrate your commitment to solving this problem. – tadman
hm, but I´d like to start a projekt and cant find a startpoint. I need a Framework to work with and cant find one – Zero Soul Eater
Both Node.js and Ruby (including Ruby on Rails) are very well supported by Amazon's SDK. – tadman
But only usable with AWS? – Zero Soul Eater
Usable on anything that can run Node.js or Ruby. – tadman

1 Answers

4
votes

Is it possible to build a Alexa Smarthome Skill without hosting it on AWS.

No, it is not -- not entirely, anyway.

Alexa supports hosting custom skills entirely externally. They call this "hosting a skill as a web service" -- that is, a web-accessible endpoint that Alexa can send requests to. However:

Web services can only be used for custom skills.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/host-a-custom-skill-as-a-web-service.html

Smart Home Skills must be run in Lambda. Of course, the Lambda function for a Smart Home Skill can make is own external requests to the "device cloud" -- whatever that means to you, and which may involve servers of your own -- but this is done using either HTTPS request or requests using any other custom protocol you might use, either way, from inside the Lambda function that Alexa invokes.

Your skill code, which is hosted as a Lambda function receives and parses the directive, validating the authentication information. Your skill communicates with your systems, or device cloud, using communication channels you've defined to turn on the customer’s kitchen light. (emphasis added)

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/smarthome/understand-the-smart-home-skill-api.html