Amazon Echo items

so I am trying to get echo to work with the official skill. I have the skill loaded in Echo and I have item files set. the issue is I can not discover the items in the amazon app. my cloud shows alexa as an application but still no joy. is there any good documentation on this? everything I am finding is based on the Hue bridge.

Have you looked at the documentation here:

It’s important to have both the proper tag and the proper item type for it it work. A few times I had added a tag, like “Switchable”, but was using a String item when should I have used a Switch item and that broke the discovery.

I did look at that but do you have to actually go into the developer kit and do the lamda configuration stuff with the official skill? I thought all that was done when they came out with the official skill in February. I am not going through a Hue bridge.

No, I didn’t do any lambda configuration. I see where you got that impression from the page but that information is for people who want to host the skill themselves. It does seem like there should be some better user documentation.

I just set up my myopenhab.org account, tagged the related items and then did a smart home device discovery from the Alexa application after installing the Alexa openHAB skill (and connecting it to myopenhab.org). It’s been working very well.

Here’s another topic that might help (or not)…

good info, can you explain to me the addressing of the items

Switch KitchenLights “Kitchen Lights” (gKitchen) [ “Lighting” ]

I understand the SWITCH
"KitchenLights" is this the name as it appears in the cloud?
…I have a z-wave switch that I names but in the cloud it still shows as the z-wave device with node, etc. do I use this name in that spot?
I assume “Kitchen Lights” is what alexa will expect to hear from you?
is defining… I think
(gKitchen) is this grouping this item?

by “Tagged” do you mean you identified them in the homekit.cfg file?

No, I mean an Item tag. You have a “Lighting” tag in your item already. I’d try adding a “Switchable” tag. That tag has been working well for me to control Hue lights, Insteon switches and for controlling virtual switches to control Sonos devices.

you are doing that in the Homekit.cfg, correct?
and what about the format of that string? is the “Kitchen Lights” in the example the name as it appears in the cloud or as it appears in you UI? my User interface and cloud do not match on the one switch I have added so far, I changed the name of the switch in the UI but it did not transfer to the cloud…
if that “Kitchen Lights” is the name of the switch you are trying to control, which name do you use? I would think the one in the cloud?

Nope, its in the .itmes file.
Instead of

Switch KitchenLights “Kitchen Lights” (gKitchen) [ “Lighting” ]

try:

Switch KitchenLights “Kitchen Lights” (gKitchen) [ “Switchable” ]

Lighting tag is suitable for color items. This has nothing to do with homekit besides the same tag (homekit doesn’t even need to be installed)

Like @Rickecho said, you just need to tag the item definition. I haven’t modified homekit.cfg.

The item label is used for the voice commands (“Kitchen Lights”). There’s only one label so I don’t know what you mean by one in the UI (which UI?) and one in the cloud (which cloud?). Some of the Alexa apps do show both the item name and the item label in the device list, but the label is used for commands.

Additionally, I would recommend naming your item “Kitchen”. You can and still say “Lights in Kitchen” or “Kitchen Lights” as Alexa “knows” by the tag (switchable/light) what kind of device she should look for.