Upgrade to a Multi-capability Skill (MCS) with the Developer Console

Multi-capability skills (MCS) enable you to create an Alexa smart home skill that extends the built-in support for certain utterances with your own custom voice interaction model. For example, have your skill use the built-in support for utterances that turn a device on or off, or have your skill support custom utterances such as "Alexa, ask invocation name what can this skill do?"

The instructions on this page describe how to use the Alexa Skills Kit developer console to perform the following tasks:

Access your skill

Access your skill from the Alex Skills Kit developer console to update its interaction models.

To access your skill and its interaction models

  1. Log in to the Alexa Skills Kit developer console.
  2. From the skill list, select the skill that you're updating.

  3. From the left navigation tab, click the Models tab to modify the models for the skill.

    The developer console displays the Models tab for the selected skill.

Create an MCS with both smart home and custom skill capabilities

You can create a new MCS that has the capabilities of both a smart home and a custom skill.

To create a new MCS with both smart home and custom skill capabilities

  1. In Create a skill, follow the instructions to create your new skill.
  2. When you configure your interaction models, choose either the Smart Home or Custom interaction model by enabling the Status toggle for the model.
  3. To save your new skill, click Save.
  4. In Upgrade an existing skill to MCS by adding custom or smart home capabilities, follow the steps to upgrade your new skill to MCS.

Upgrade an existing skill to MCS by adding custom or smart home capabilities

You can upgrade your existing skill to MCS by adding custom or smart home capabilities.

To upgrade an existing smart home skill to MCS by adding custom capabilities

  1. Log in to the Alexa Skills Kit developer console.
  2. From the skill list, select the skill that you're upgrading.
  3. From the left navigation tab, click the Models tab.

  4. Enable the Status toggle for the model that you're adding to the skill.

    The text for each model includes reminders for the prerequisites for adding that model:

    • Custom model – Make sure to set the endpoints and interaction model for the skill.

    • Smart home model – Make sure to set the endpoint for smart home and to set account linking for the skill.

  5. To save the updated skill, click Save.

Delete a model from a development stage skill

You can delete a model from a skill if your skill or model meets either of the following conditions:

  • Your skill is still in the development stage and not published yet, you can delete a model from your skill.

  • If the skill is live, but you haven't yet published the model itself as live, you can delete this model.

    For example, if you have a live skill with smart home model only, you can try upgrading to MCS by adding the custom model. If you change your mind, you can delete the newly added custom model before publishing the skill with that model.

To delete a model from a development stage skill

  1. Log in to the Alexa Skills Kit developer console.
  2. From the skill list, select the skill that you want to delete the model from.
  3. From the left navigation tab, click the Models tab.

  4. To delete that model from the skill, toggle the section box for that model to the disabled position.

    A prompt opens asking you to confirm your changes.

  5. To save the updated skill, click Save.

Perform a trial upgrade of a development stage skill to MCS

If you have a published skill with with either a smart home or custom interaction model, you can try out MCS to determine if it fits your users' needs before publishing your skill with MCS.

To perform a trial upgrade of a development stage skill

  • Upgrade the skill and then test it with the new model with your users. When you're ready decide whether to publish your upgraded skill or not, you have two options:
    • If you prefer to revert your skill, follow the instructions to delete a model before publishing the skill to production.

    -Or-

    • If you like the MCS feature and want to publish the MCS version for customers, submit the upgraded skill for certification.

Last updated: Sep 14, 2022