Automation not appearing in Alexa

I have two automations configured with ios.action_fired triggers, they run when fired from my iPhone, but they don’t appear in Alexa as entities/devices. They appear in Settings → Voice Assistants → Alexa, the Expose and Amazon Alexa switches are enabled. If it matters, the automations’ actions are both button presses; I know those don’t work as directly exposed entities, hence putting them in automation “shells”. I’ve run discovery a number of times, they’re never found. Other entities on the same device as the buttons work fine with Alexas when exposed as entities directly (i.e. not though automations).

Any ideas? Thanks in advance,

Brad

Automations aren’t supposed to be (allowed to be?) exposed to Alexa. Automations run when HA detects the trigger, and therefore there is no reason to expose them to Alexa.

It sounds like what you want to do is to put the actions into a HA script, and then expose the script to Alexa. A script in HA is essentially an automation without any triggers defined.

Script defined now in HA, but not appearing in Alexa.

Brad

OK, never mind, I see what’s happening. I can’t find it anywhere in the config, but it works if I type it in the Alexa app prompt on my phone. The problem is, it’s called “StopBed”, and the voice processor doesn’t like that because it has the word “stop” in it. This is a perennial problem with Alexa (and perhaps voice assistants in general): Too many things that sound like other things. We’ve ended up naming things “Penelope”, “Mabel”, “Gertrude” etc. to make them sound unique, and then having to train our 50-something year old brains to remember what the heck “Gertrude” is.

Edit: I’ve tentatively settled on “cessation”, i.e. “Alexa, run cessation”, which seems to work. I know, first world problems, but geez.

Brad

You should be able to name your script (in both HA and Alexa) as whatever you want, and then define a routine in Alexa to run that script based on whatever phrase you want to use. I believe Alexa will attempt to match phrases for routines first before interpreting the phrase.

For example if you create a routine in Alexa to open your garage door and set it to run on the phrase “Alexa turn on the living room light” then you will no longer be able to turn on your living room light by voice; instead your garage door will open.