Your Alexa Consoles

Resources and Assets

To give customers more flexibility in how they speak, you can provide multiple friendly names for some capabilities or their configurations. You provide these friendly names through Resources objects. Customers can use any of the provided friendly names when speaking to Alexa. The first entry in the list is considered primary and is displayed in the Alexa app.

Resources objects
Label object
CapabilityResources
- Example capabilityResources
ModeResources
- Example modeResources
PresetResources
- Example presetResources
Global Alexa catalog
Upload your own catalog
Names you cannot use

Resources objects

The following table describes the fields in capabilityResources, ModeResources, and presetResources objects.

Field	Description	Type
`friendlyNames`	Required. An array of `Label` objects that customers can use for VUI and GUI interactions. The first label in the list is the primary name and is used for display in the GUI. The primary name must be unique for the endpoint. All the labels in the list are synonyms and are valid for targeting a device with VUI interactions.	array of `Label` objects

Label object

Resources are made up of label objects. You can use labels from the global Alexa catalog, or you can upload your own catalog of labels.

Note: The ability to upload your own catalog is coming soon.

The following tables describe the fields in a label object in more detail.

Label object

Note: Label is a polymorphic type, so you should include the @type field to identify the object type, and provide the values required for that type.

Field	Type	Description
@type	string	Required. The type of the object. Supported values are `asset` and `text`.
value	object	Required. The value of the label. When `@type` is `asset`, contains an `AssetString` that references an item from a localized catalog of strings. When `@type` is `text`, contains a `TextString` to represent a literal string value.

AssetString object

Field	Type	Description
assetId	string	Required. The ID of the localized string in the global or skill catalog.

TextString object

Field	Type	Description
text	string	Required. The literal representation of a string.
locale	string	Required. The locale in which the string is localized. Currently, the only supported value is `en-US`.

Assets use a namespace to identify the source catalog for their values. The Alexa namespace indicates the global catalog curated by Amazon. Other namespaces indicate vendor catalogs, and can be prefaced with the name of the catalog associated with the device, or with the My prefix to indicate a vendor catalog.

CapabilityResources

Use capabilityResources to provide a set of friendlyNames for the ToggleController, RangeController, and ModeController interfaces.

Example capabilityResources

The following example shows one way to model a fan with a "rotate" feature. The skill uses an Alexa.ToggleController and provides friendlyNames of "Rotate" and "Rotation" as plain text. This allows customers to say phrases like "Turn on rotate on the fan" or "Enable fan rotation". The skill also uses an asset of Alexa.Setting.Oscillate as an alternate, so customers can use words like oscillate, oscillation, swivel, and others defined in the Alexa.Setting.Oscillate catalog.

In the following example the first friendly name ("Rotate") is the one displayed in the Alexa mobile app. The friendly name listed first is the one displayed in the app.

{
  "type": "AlexaInterface",
  "interface": "Alexa.ToggleController",
  "version": "3",
  "instance": "SampleFan.Rotate",
  "capabilityResources": {
    "friendlyNames": [
      {
        "@type": "text",
        "value": {
          "text": "Rotate",
          "locale": "en-US"
        }
      },
      {
        "@type": "text",
        "value": {
          "text": "Rotation",
          "locale": "en-US"
        }
      },
      {
        "@type": "asset",
        "value": {
          "assetId": "Alexa.Setting.Oscillate"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

ModeResources

Use modeResources with ModeController to provide a set of friendlyNames for each supported mode.

Example modeResources

The following example shows one way to model a fan that has three modes: "normal", "auto", and "night mode". The skill models this feature with an Alexa.ModeController and provides friendlyNames for each of the supportedModes. The skill provides friendlyNames for night mode of Alexa.Setting.Night as an asset, and "White Noise" as plain text. This allows customers to say phrases like "Set the fan speed to night mode" or "Set the fan to white noise".

In the following example the first friendly name ("Night", which is the first friendly name for the Alexa.Setting.Night identifier) is the one displayed in the Alexa mobile app. The friendly name listed first is the one displayed in the app.

{
  "supportedModes": [
    {
      "value": "SampleFanMode.Night",
      "modeResources": {
        "friendlyNames": [
          {
            "@type": "asset",
            "value": {
              "assetId": "Alexa.Setting.Night"
            }
          },
          {
            "@type": "text",
            "value": {
              "text": "White Noise",
              "locale": "en-US"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

PresetResources

Use presetResources with RangeController to provide a set of friendlyNames for each RangeController preset.

Example presetResources

The following example shows one way to model a fan that has a speed feature. The skill models this feature with an Alexa.RangeController and provides presets for various range values. This allows customers to set the fan speed to a numeric value without using a number in their utterance. For example, the skill provides a preset for 1 with friendlyNames of Alexa.Value.Low as an asset, and "Slowest" as plain text. This allows customers to say phrases like "Set the fan speed to low" or "Set the fan speed to slowest".

In the following example the first friendly name ("Low", which is the first friendly name for the Alexa.Value.Low identifier) is the one displayed in the Alexa mobile app. The friendly name listed first is the one displayed in the app.

{
  "presets": [
    {
      "rangeValue": 1,
      "presetResources": {
        "friendlyNames": [
          {
            "@type": "asset",
            "value": {
              "assetId": "Alexa.Value.Low"
            }
          },
          {
            "@type": "text",
            "value": {
              "text": "Slowest",
              "locale": "en-US"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Global Alexa catalog

You can use the global Alexa catalog for pre-defined names of devices, settings, values, and units. This catalog is localized into all the languages that Alexa supports.

You can reference the following catalog of pre-defined friendly names. Each item in the following list is an asset identifier followed by its supported friendly names. The first friendly name for each identifier (in bold) is the one displayed in the Alexa mobile app.

Asset Identifier	Supported Friendly Names
Alexa.DeviceName.Shower	Shower
Alexa.DeviceName.Washer	Washer Washing Machine
Alexa.DeviceName.Router	Router Internet Router Network Router Wifi Router Net Router
Alexa.DeviceName.Fan	Fan Blower
Alexa.DeviceName.AirPurifier	Air Purifier Air Cleaner Clean Air Machine
Alexa.DeviceName.SpaceHeater	Space Heater Portable Heater
Alexa.Shower.RainHead	Rain Head Overhead shower Rain Shower Rain Spout Rain Faucet
Alexa.Shower.HandHeld	Handheld Shower Shower Wand Hand Shower
Alexa.Setting.WaterTemperature	Water Temperature Water Temp Water Heat
Alexa.Setting.Temperature	Temperature Temp
Alexa.Setting.WashCycle	Wash Cycle Wash Preset Wash setting
Alexa.Setting.2GGuestWiFi	2.4G Guest Wi-Fi 2.4G Guest Network Guest Network 2.4G 2G Guest Wifi
Alexa.Setting.5GGuestWiFi	5G Guest Wi-Fi 5G Guest Network Guest Network 5G 5G Guest Wifi
Alexa.Setting.GuestWiFi	Guest Wi-fi Guest Network Guest Net
Alexa.Setting.Auto	Auto Automatic Automatic Mode Auto Mode
Alexa.Setting.Night	Night Night Mode
Alexa.Setting.Quiet	Quiet Quiet Mode Noiseless Silent
Alexa.Setting.Oscillate	Oscillate Swivel Oscillation Spin Back and forth
Alexa.Setting.FanSpeed	Fan Speed Airflow speed Wind Speed Air speed Air velocity
Alexa.Setting.Preset	Preset Setting
Alexa.Setting.Mode	Mode
Alexa.Setting.Direction	Direction
Alexa.Value.Delicate	Delicates Delicate
Alexa.Value.QuickWash	Quick Wash Fast Wash Wash Quickly Speed Wash
Alexa.Value.Maximum	Maximum Max
Alexa.Value.Minimum	Minimum Min
Alexa.Value.High	High
Alexa.Value.Low	Low
Alexa.Value.Medium	Medium Mid

Upload your own catalog

You can also upload your own catalog with your own custom terms.

Note: The ability to upload your own catalog is coming soon.

We recommend that you use catalogs for any names that require localization. For user-defined names and settings, we recommend that you use plain text strings and notify Alexa of any changes via an AddOrUpdateReport.

Names you cannot use

You cannot use any friendly names from the following list:

alarm
alarms
all alarms
away mode
bass
camera
date
date today
day
do not disturb
drop in
music
night light
notification
playing
sleep sounds
time
timer
today in music
treble
volume
way f. m.