How to Trigger a Home Assistant Scene from Alexa using HA Cloud

cjs018 · January 2, 2018, 1:58pm

I have configured Home Assistant Cloud and can use it to turn on individual lights using a command such as, “Alexa, turn on the Living Room Light.” I have scenes set up that include multiple lights that I can activate using voice input on the web interface, by clicking on the microphone and saying, “Turn on Front Bright.” Or, “Turn on Front Dim.” I’ve tried several variations, (starting with “Alexa, tell Home Assistant to turn on Front Bright.” Also trying “Alexa, tell Home Assistant to activate Front Bright.” “Alexa, tell Home Assistant to set scene to Front Bright.”

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

keith-michael · January 2, 2018, 2:50pm

This started working for me once I added alexa_display_categories in my customization file. Code below. While it works Alexa always responds with 'Hmmmm ‘Bedroom Nightlight is not responding’

  scene.bedroom_nightlight:
    friendly_name: "Bedroom Nightlight"
    alexa_description: "Bedroom Nightlight"
    alexa_display_categories: "SCENE"
    alexa_hidden: false

cjs018 · January 2, 2018, 5:17pm

Thank you keith-michael,
What command you use to activate the scene? “Alexa, tell Home Assistant to turn on Bedroom Nightlight.” or “Alexa, tell Home Assistant to activate scene Bedroom Nightlight.” ? I’m at work now and will test this evening. Where did you find the documentation that describes “alexa_display_categories”?

Thanks again!

cjs018 · January 2, 2018, 5:22pm

I found some reference here: Home Assistant Cloud - Home Assistant

Guess I need to use all the options such as include_domains, perhaps SCENE defaults to hidden.

Thanks again for the direction.

keith-michael · January 2, 2018, 5:59pm

I use ‘Alexa, turn on Bedroom nightlight’

Scripts have also been exposed so we can say ‘Alexa, turn on dinner time’ . I don’t think you need to say ‘tell Home Assistant’ if you are using Home Assistant Cloud.

I haven’t used alexa_display_categories on anything else yet, only scenes, because they didn’t work out of the box like my scripts, switches, and lights.

cjs018 · January 3, 2018, 4:47am

Just confirming that this did the trick! Thanks again!

m00dawg · January 11, 2018, 11:45pm

I managed to get this mostly working as well, albeit with the same problem mentioned - the scenes fire but Alexa responds with here “Hmmm…’ is not responding”

lucasweb78 · January 17, 2018, 9:29pm

This appears to be an on going problem with HA Cloud and Alexa.

I have also notices that the Alexa App always reports “There was a problem” on each device and does not reflect the current state of the device.

I have opened https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/issues/11742 for the above issues

ravageg1 · January 2, 2023, 5:50pm

I checked the issue you opened, but honestly I’m still not clear if this was ever resolved. I’m running the latest of the skill and HA, but scenes still don’t show in Alexa without the changes above, and I’m wondering if the issue of “there was a problem” response was ever resolved.