Creating Alexa Skills with CloudFormation

Question

Are people generally successful using [Alexa::ASK::Skill](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/alexa-resource-ask-skill.html)?  I'm trying to use it from CDK, both with and without [cdk-alexa-skill[(https://github.com/aws-samples/cdk-alexa-skill)  but it always fails, with an opaque error message just saying the skill ID it's trying to create does not yet exist.  I can't figure out how to tell why it is failing - even with verbose output, it only says that it is creating the skill then fails because the skill could not be found.

[Issue](https://github.com/aws-samples/cdk-alexa-skill/issues/34)

Pandurangaswamy · Answer

Hi   wz2b,

Please go through the below steps i hope it will helpfull to resolve your issue.

**1. Verify Prerequisites**

**Ensure you have the following prerequisites met:**

**AWS CDK Installed:** Make sure you have the latest version of AWS CDK installed.

**ASK CLI Installed:** The Alexa Skills Kit Command Line Interface (ASK CLI) should be installed and configured.

**AWS Credentials:** Your AWS credentials should be properly configured to have the necessary permissions to create Alexa skills.

**2. Check Skill Configuration**

* * Ensure that your skill configuration in the CDK stack is correct. This includes the Skill ID, Skill Package, and other properties. Here is an example of how to define a skill in a CDK stack:

```
import * as cdk from '@aws-cdk/core';
import * as alexa from '@aws-cdk/alexa-ask';

class AlexaSkillStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

const skill = new alexa.CfnSkill(this, 'MyAlexaSkill', {
      vendorId: 'your-vendor-id',
      authenticationConfiguration: {
        clientId: 'your-client-id',
        clientSecret: 'your-client-secret',
        refreshToken: 'your-refresh-token'
      },
      skillPackage: {
        s3Bucket: 'your-s3-bucket',
        s3Key: 'your-skill-package.zip'
      },
    });

// Make sure to add any necessary dependencies
    skill.node.addDependency(yourOtherResources);
  }
}

const app = new cdk.App();
new AlexaSkillStack(app, 'AlexaSkillStack');

```

**3. Validate the Skill Package**

* Make sure your skill package (contained in the S3 bucket) is correctly formatted and accessible. The skill package should include the skill.json and interaction model files.

**4. Check IAM Permissions**

**Ensure that your IAM role or user has the necessary permissions to create and manage Alexa skills. The required permissions typically include:**

```

alexa::ask:CreateSkill
alexa::ask:UpdateSkill
alexa::ask:GetSkill
alexa::ask:DeleteSkill
s3:GetObject
s3:PutObject
s3:ListBucket
```

**5. Enable Verbose Logging**

**Enable verbose logging for CDK to get more detailed output during deployment. This can be done by setting the --verbose flag when running cdk deploy:**

```
cdk deploy --verbose
```

**6. Debugging the Skill Creation Process**

**Since the error message indicates that the skill ID does not exist, there are a few things to check:**

* Skill ID Management: Ensure that the skill ID is correctly managed and passed through the CDK process.
* Skill Creation Timing: Sometimes the skill creation process may be asynchronous and take longer than expected. Adding delays or retries in your deployment script might help.

**7. Review AWS CloudFormation Events**

* Check the CloudFormation stack events in the AWS Management Console to get more insights into what might be going wrong. This can sometimes provide more detailed error messages than the CDK output.

Creating Alexa Skills with CloudFormation

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