How do I - Installing Skills

This section will help you to understand what a skill is and how to install and use skills with OVOS.

Finding Skills

OVOS official skills can be found on PyPi and the latest stable version can be installed with a pip install command.

pip install ovos-skill-naptime

If you have issues installing with this command, you may need to use the alpha versions. Pip has a command line flag for this --pre.

pip install --pre ovos-skill-naptime

will install the latest alpha version. This should fix dependency issues with the stable versions.

Most skills are found throughout github. The official skills can be found with a simple search in the OVOS GitHub page. There are a few other places they can be found. Neon AI has several skills, and a search through GitHub will surley find more.

Installing a found skill

There are a few ways to install skills in ovos. The preferred way is with pip and a setup.py file.

pip install

The preferred method is with pip. If a skill has a setup.py file, it can be installed this way.

The syntax is pip install git+<github/repository.git>.

ex. pip install git+https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS/skill-ovos-date-time.git should install the ovos-date-time skill.

Skills can be installed from a local file also.

Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS/skill-ovos-date-time

pip install ./skill-ovos-date-time

After installing skills this way, ovos skills service needs to be restarted.

systemctl --user restart ovos-skills

git install

This is NOT the preferred method and is here for backward compatibility with the original mycroft-core skills.

Skills can also be directly cloned to the skill directory, usually located at ~/.local/share/mycroft/skills/.

enter the skill directory.

cd ~/.local/share/mycroft/skills

and clone the found skill here with git.

git clone <github/repository.git>

ex. git clone https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS/skill-ovos-date-time.git will install the ovos-date-time skill.

A restart of the ovos-skills service is not required when installing this way.

Deprecated

The OVOS skills manager is in need of some love, and when official skill stores are created, this will be updated to use the new methods. Until then, this method is NOT recommended, and NOT supported. The following is included just as reference.

OVOS skills manager

Install skills from any appstore!

The mycroft-skills-manager alternative that is not vendor locked, this means you must use it responsibly!

Do not install random skills, different appstores have different policies!

Keep in mind any skill you install can modify mycroft-core at runtime, and very likely has root access if you are running on a Raspberry Pi.

Supported stores

WIP

  • OVOS - this one is really a proof of concept for now, stay tuned!
  • Mycroft Marketplace - the official mycroft skills store, all skills are reviewed by humans!
  • Pling - the official plasma bigscreen skills store, skills are accepted by default and only removed if flagged as malicious
  • [Andlo's skill list]https://github.com/andlo/mycroft-skills-list-gitbook/tree/master/skills) - not a real appstore, this is a web scrapped automatically generated list of 900+ skills from all over GitHub, there is no review at all, it will catch malicious skills

OpenVoiceOS Skill Manager

pip install ovos-skills-manager

Enable a skill store

osm enable --appstore [ovos|mycroft|pling|andlo|all]

Search for a skill and install it

osm install --search

See more osm commands

osm --help
osm install --help

More Information