Amazon provides some terrific sample code and documentation for developers who want to get started with the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and/or Alexa Voice Service (AVS), but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the resources available. You may want to bookmark this page for future reference. Last updated 3/13/18.

Note that these resources pertain to development with the Alexa Skills Kit or for the Alexa Voice Service using coding and development skills and languages you already possess. None of these resources are intended to teach you how to program, they’re meant to teach you how to apply coding languages you already know to Alexa applications.

Whether you need intro-level training, want to connect with other Alexa devs in your area, want to keep on top of official Amazon events or need a specific question answered about your skill-in-progress, you can find what you need by following one or more of these links. All listed resources are free and publicly available, and links are active as of this writing, on 12/5/17 (but are subject to change or go dark at their owners’ discretion going forward).

Amazon Training / Tutorials

Amazon Echo Dev Portal

Amazon Alexa Dev Portal

Amazon Web Services Events & Webinars Portal – subscribe via RSS to be notified of new events in your area(s) of interest

Getting Started With the Alexa Skills Kit

JSON Interface Reference for Custom Skills

Display Interface Reference

For skills that run on Alexa devices with screens, like Show and Dot.

Alexa Skill Node.js Quick Start – Make an Alexa skill with Node.js in 5 minutes or less

Create a Smarter Home with Alexa – Introducing the Smart Home Skill API

Amazon’s Github repository for building an Echo analog with a Java client running on Raspberry Pi

Alexa Skills Kit Samples – The Alexa Skills Kit provides several samples of custom skills written in Node.js (JavaScript) and Java

Alexa Skills Kit Template: Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Fact Skill

Alexa Skills Kit Template: Build a Trivia Skill in under an Hour

Alexa Skills Kit Template: Build A City Guide Skill

How To Add Beta Testers To Your Skill Before You Publish

Alexa Wake Words Now Available To Outside Devs

Amazon’s Smart Home Skills API

A New Visual Programming Interface for Creating Choose Your Own Adventure Alexa Skills

Non-Amazon Training / Tutorials / Resources

MARY multi-lingual Text-To-Speech file creator

MARY in-browser TTS file creator client

JOVO Alexa MP3 file converter tool for creating SSML snippets

LME’s Alexa Skill Image Cheatsheet

Udemy – Introduction to Voice Design with Amazon’s Alexa

Dustin Coates’ voice-first dev blog

Ruuvu: Building An Alexa Skill For IMDB Ratings With Alexa-app

Big Nerd Ranch Alexa Developer Training Videos

ASK / Alexa Dev Communities

Amazon Developer Forum – Alexa

Stack Overflow – Latest Alexa Skills Kit Questions

Stack Overflow – Latest Alexa Skills Questions

Stack Overflow: Latest Alexa Voice Service Questions

Seattle Area Meetup for Alexa Devs

NYC Area Meetup for Voice Assistant Devs

Los Angeles Area Meetup for Alexa Devs

Boston Area Meetup for Alexa Devs

Columbus Area Meetup for Alexa Devs

Sample Code / Developer Toolkits

Amazon’s Alexa SDK for Node on Github

Matt Kruse’s Alexa App Node Module

Nicholas Clawson’s Alexa-bility Skills Framework For Node:

Interactive Demo

Documentation

Examples

Toolkit

Amazon’s Github Repository for Alexa Skills Kit Dev in Java

Amazon’s Github Repository for Alexa Skills Kit Dev in Javascript

Anjishnu’s Github Repository: Python ASK Developer Toolkit

Rocktavious’s Github Repository: Django ASK Developer Toolkit

stefann42’s Github Repository: .NET ASK Developer Toolkit

JavaScript Resources Roundup

develpr’s Github Repository: Laravel & Lumen Classes to Make ASK Development Easier

Miscellaneous

Free Audio Resources for Alexa Devs

Amazon open positions listed under keyword Echo

Amazon open positions listed under keyword Alexa

Amazon’s Alexa Device Source Code Repository

MSDN Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Reference Library

JSON.org JSON Reference Library

Nodejs.org Node Reference Library

ASK Developer Wiki on Reddit

My own developer guide to Using Session Attributes in Javascript – free pdf, can be printed or downloaded

How To Check Amazon Server Status, Streaming Service Status

Public Domain Music & Sound Effects

Free AWS Public Datasets

Amazonian Twitter Accounts to Follow

Amazon Alexa/Echo Team Twitter Account

Amazon Alexa Developer Team Twitter Account

Twitter Account For Dave Isbitski, Amazon Chief evangelist for Alexa and Echo

Twitter Account For Paul Cutsinger, Amazon Alexa Principal Evangelist

Twitter Account For Amit Jotwani, Amazon AVS Evangelist

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