What SkillKit Gives You

SkillKit is a small library for writing Thalovant skills without copying the plumbing every skill needs. OVOS still owns intent routing, speech, sessions, and scheduling; SkillKit gives your code the pieces around them. This page is the map. Pick what you want to do, and it names the helper and the page that shows it working.

Answer

You want to	Use	Shown in
Answer a spoken command	ThalovantSkill with @intent_handler and an .intent file	Choose the right base
Answer a topic nothing else claimed	ThalovantFallbackSkill with can_answer, reply, and FALLBACK_PRIORITY	Choose a fallback priority
Keep a conversation going	ThalovantConversationalSkill with can_converse and converse	Lesson 3 of the quiz
Do both, or play media	ThalovantConversationalFallbackSkill, ThalovantCommonPlaySkill	Choose the right base
Speak to the room that asked, in its language	self.speak_to(message, text)	Lesson 2 of the quiz
Show a reply without speaking	preview_reply	Lesson 1 of the quiz

Understand what was said

You want to	Use	Shown in
Read the words, the language, or the location	self.utterance, self.lang_of, self.location_of	What you can call
Match a keyword people inflect (“logs”, “logging”)	self.mentions, self.mentioned_term	What you can call
Check a whole phrase against an intent file	locale_resources.matches_literal_intent	Lesson 2 of the quiz
Check alternative transcripts	message.utterances	Read alternative transcripts
Write optional phrases and slots	.intent templates and thalovant-skillkit check	Write intent phrases
Compare text the way vocabulary files are compared	fold, fold_words, strip_accents	What you can call

Say it in the right words

You want to	Use	Shown in
Pick a translated line, with placeholders	self.dialog("name", lang, data)	Lesson 2 of the quiz
Add pauses or pronunciation hints	self.dialog, .ssml twins, ssml.say, ssml.digits	Add pauses and pronunciation
Vary replies without repeating	self.speak_varied_dialog	Find sounds once
Serve a regional variant without a second translation	locale/regional.json and thalovant-skillkit locales --write	Support regional variations
Say a date, time, or duration for ears and for a screen	moments.date_text, time_text, duration_text, speak_with_written	Say a date or time both ways
Read one skill setting safely	self.setting("key", default)	What you can call

Remember and fetch

You want to	Use	Shown in
Keep one game or state per player	SessionStateStore	Keep one game per player
Call a web service with a time budget	JsonServiceClient, RequestBudget	Give online work a time budget
Ask the Thalovant knowledge service	knowledge.knowledge_reply	Ask the knowledge service
Ship many sounds and pick without repeats	bundled_files, ShuffleBagPool	Find sounds once
Refresh a catalog in the background	PeriodicWorker	Refresh away from the reply
Keep optional shared state in Redis or PostgreSQL	JsonStateStore	Save state without copying backend code
Get your own reply back on a shared bus topic	bus.wait_for_response	Keep shared bus replies with their caller

Test and ship

You want to	Use	Shown in
Test without a running assistant	testing.message, testing.FakeBus, preview_reply	Test it
Test through the real OVOS bus	skill_harness, managed_minicroft, capture_turn	Exercise the real OVOS bus
Start a project	thalovant-skillkit new	Start from a working skill
Check resources, and that no other skill owns your phrases	thalovant-skillkit check	Ship it
Check that the built package carries its files	thalovant-skillkit check-artifacts	Check what you built

What SkillKit Leaves To OVOS

Recognising which skill a sentence belongs to, turning text into speech, keeping a session alive, and running timers and alarms are OVOS’s jobs. self.speak, self.speak_dialog, self.play_audio, the intent decorators, and the scheduler all keep working exactly as they do in any OVOS skill.

The SkillKit reference has every signature and return value.