alexa-cli

What This Skill Does

The alexa-cli skill provides a powerful interface for interacting with the Amazon Alexa ecosystem directly through the command line or via the OpenClaw AI agent. By leveraging an unofficial Alexa API, this skill grants you the ability to bridge the gap between your local system and your smart home hardware. Whether you need to broadcast announcements across your house, control IoT light switches, query smart thermostats, or even conduct natural language conversations with Alexa's LLM-powered assistant, this tool offers granular control. It effectively turns any Echo device into an endpoint for your automation workflows.

Installation

To integrate this skill into your OpenClaw environment, execute the following command in your terminal: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/buddyh/alexa-cli

Once installed, you must authenticate the skill to associate it with your Amazon account. Run alexacli auth to initiate the browser-based login flow. For accounts outside the United States, remember to specify your domain using the --domain flag (e.g., alexacli auth --domain amazon.co.uk). Use alexacli auth status --verify after setup to ensure your token is correctly configured and active.

Use Cases

• Smart Home Automation: Programmatically trigger routines or toggle specific devices like lights, locks, and thermostats based on system events.
• System Notifications: Use the 'speak' or 'announce' functionality to turn Echo devices into status speakers for your scripts—for example, announcing "Build Successful" upon completion of a code deployment.
• Conversational AI: Utilize the askplus feature to interact with the LLM-powered assistant, enabling multi-turn context retention for complex queries.
• Audio Broadcasting: Stream specific notification sounds or pre-recorded audio files directly to devices using the play command.

Example Prompts

1. "Alexa, announce to the whole house that dinner is ready in the kitchen."
2. "Can you set the bedroom thermostat to 70 degrees and lock the front door?"
3. "Ask Alexa what is on my calendar for today and tell me the summary."

Tips & Limitations

• Authentication: Credentials expire approximately every 14 days; ensure you periodically check status or re-authenticate. Configuration data is stored locally in ~/.alexa-cli/config.json.
• Audio Requirements: When using the play command, ensure your MP3 files strictly adhere to the 48kbps / 22050Hz format and are hosted via HTTPS, otherwise, the playback will fail.
• Device Names: Use descriptive names for your devices in the Alexa app to ensure the alexacli can match them easily. Partial names often work, but specificity improves reliability.