Alexa.PowerController Interface

The PowerController interface describes the messages used to control and report on the power state of a device.

Directives
- TurnOn
- TurnOff
Properties and Events
Additional Sample Code
Related Interfaces

Directives

This control and query directives in this interface are supported in skills that target the following languages:

English (US)
English (UK)
English (India)
German

See Develop Smart Home Skills in Multiple Languages for more information.

TurnOn

Request to turn on an endpoint.

“Alexa, turn on device name”

“Alexa, schalte Smart Home-Gerät ein”

Example Request:

{
  "directive": {
    "header": {
      "namespace": "Alexa.PowerController",
      "name": "TurnOn",
      "payloadVersion": "3",
      "messageId": "1bd5d003-31b9-476f-ad03-71d471922820",
      "correlationToken": "dFMb0z+PgpgdDmluhJ1LddFvSqZ/jCc8ptlAKulUj90jSqg=="
    },
    "endpoint": {
      "scope": {
        "type": "BearerToken",
        "token": "some-access-token"
      },
      "endpointId": "appliance-001",
      "cookie": {}
    },
    "payload": {}
  }
}

Payload details

Field	Description	Type	Required
None	No required or optional fields in the payload.	N/A	N/A

TurnOff

Request to turn off an endpoint.

“Alexa, turn off device name

Alexa, schalte Smart Home-Gerät aus

Example Request:

{
  "directive": {
    "header": {
      "namespace": "Alexa.PowerController",
      "name": "TurnOff",
      "payloadVersion": "3",
      "messageId": "1bd5d003-31b9-476f-ad03-71d471922820",
      "correlationToken": "dFMb0z+PgpgdDmluhJ1LddFvSqZ/jCc8ptlAKulUj90jSqg=="
    },
    "endpoint": {
      "scope": {
        "type": "BearerToken",
        "token": "some-access-token"
      },
      "endpointId": "appliance-001",
      "cookie": {}
    },
    "payload": {}
  }
}

Payload details

Field	Description	Type	Required
None	No required or optional fields in the payload.	N/A	N/A

Properties and Events

For this interface, you must either reply:

Synchronously, which means you send a Response event to Alexa from the Lambda function.
Asynchronously, which means you send a Response event to the Alexa event gateway. When you reply asynchronously, you must include a scope with an authorization token to identify the customer, and a correlation token to identify the directive you are responding to.

When you send a Response, you should include the state of reportable properties in the context of the message.

Reportable Properties

When the power state changes, send a state report with a powerState property.

Property Name	Type	Description
`powerState`	PowerState	Indicates the whether the devices is powered on or off. Valid values are “ON” and “OFF”.

Response

Send an Response event when a power on or power off request successfully completes.

Response example for a TurnOn request

{
  "context": {
    "properties": [ {
      "namespace": "Alexa.PowerController",
      "name": "powerState",
      "value": "ON",
      "timeOfSample": "2017-02-03T16:20:50.52Z",
      "uncertaintyInMilliseconds": 500
    } ]
  },
  "event": {
    "header": {
      "namespace": "Alexa",
      "name": "Response",
      "payloadVersion": "3",
      "messageId": "5f8a426e-01e4-4cc9-8b79-65f8bd0fd8a4",
      "correlationToken": "dFMb0z+PgpgdDmluhJ1LddFvSqZ/jCc8ptlAKulUj90jSqg=="
    },
    "endpoint": {
      "scope": {
        "type": "BearerToken",
        "token": "Alexa-access-token"
      },
      "endpointId": "appliance-001"
    },
    "payload": {}
  }
}

Response example for a TurnOff request

{
  "context": {
    "properties": [ {
      "namespace": "Alexa.PowerController",
      "name": "powerState",
      "value": "OFF",
      "timeOfSample": "2017-02-03T16:20:50.52Z",
      "uncertaintyInMilliseconds": 500
    } ]
  },
  "event": {
    "header": {
      "namespace": "Alexa",
      "name": "Response",
      "payloadVersion": "3",
      "messageId": "5f8a426e-01e4-4cc9-8b79-65f8bd0fd8a4",
      "correlationToken": "dFMb0z+PgpgdDmluhJ1LddFvSqZ/jCc8ptlAKulUj90jSqg=="
    },
    "endpoint": {
      "scope": {
        "type": "BearerToken",
        "token": "Alexa-access-token"
      },
      "endpointId": "appliance-001"
    },
    "payload": {}
  }
}

ErrorResponse

You should reply with an error if you cannot complete the customer request for some reason. See Error.Response for more details.

Additional Sample Code

See the sample request and response messages in the Alexa smart home GitHub repo:

PowerController

Interface	Description
Alexa.PowerController	Defines messages to change the power level for an endpoint.