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Howto install skills?

Two different methods are supported by ovos-docker to install Open Voice OS's skills, each of them having pros and cons .

Slow hardware

When running Open Voice OS on slow hardware such as Raspberry Pi 3B+, it is recommended to install skills using the "As part of ovos_core container" method in order to reduce the memory consumption.

As part of ovos_core container

The first method is to use a skills.list file within the ~/ovos/config/ directory (it does not exist by default), this file acts as a Python requirements.txt file.

When ovos_core container starts, it will look for a skills.list file and install the skills defined in there.

Skill requirements

The skill has to be compatible with the pip install method which requires a setup.py file.

~/ovos/config/skills.list
ovos-skill-stop # Latest skill version on PyPi
ovos-skill-volume==0.0.1 # Specific skill version on PyPi
git+https://github.com/OpenVoiceOS/skill-ovos-wikipedia.git@fix/whatever # Specific skill's branch on GitHub

If the ovos_core container is wiped for any reasons (like an update), the skill(s) will be automatically reprovisioned.

Not only for skills

skills.list file could be used as well to install extra Python librairies, e.g., SoCo, RPi.GPIO. Just make sure to avoid empty lines.

The main advantage of this method is the simplicity but the downside will be more Python dependencies (libraries) within the ovos_core container, potential conflicts across them, a lack of isolation and a slower start of the container.

Once the ~/ovos/config/skills.list file is populated with the wanted skills, the ovos_core container must be restarted to handle the new requirements.

Podman users 💪

If you are running Podman instead of Docker, replace docker compose with podman-compose.

docker restart ovos_core

docker restart ovos_core

docker restart ovos_core

docker restart ovos_core

The second method is to leverage the ovos-workshop component by running a skill as standalone, it means the skill will not be part of ovos_core container but it will be running inside its own container.

The main advantage is that each skill is isolated which provide more flexibility about Python dependencies (libraries), packages. It is easier to update and more secure but the downside will be that more system resources will be consumed and a container image has to be built for each skill.

Podman users 💪

If you are running Podman instead of Docker, replace docker compose with podman-compose.

docker compose --project-name ovos --file docker-compose.yml --file docker-compose.raspberrypi.yml --file docker-compose.skills.yml up --detach

docker compose --project-name ovos --file docker-compose.yml --file docker-compose.skills.yml up --detach

docker compose --project-name ovos --file docker-compose.macos.yml --file docker-compose.skills.yml --env-file .env up --detach

docker compose --project-name ovos --file docker-compose.windows.yml --file docker-compose.skills.yml up --detach

Depending your Internet speed, your Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection speed and your hardware (I/O), the whole process could take several minutes.

Hardware Time
Raspberry Pi 3B+ with USB drive ~12 minutes
Raspberry Pi 4B with USB drive ~48 seconds
MacBook Air i7 Early 2015 with SSD ~50 seconds
AMD Ryzen 7 5800 with NVMe drive ~15 seconds

Resources overhead

To reduce the potential ressources overhead due to the image downloads and extractions, the --parallel x option could be added to the command in order to process the images by batch of x (where x is an integer).

If the ovos_core container is restarted or even deleted, the skill containers will automatically register again to it.

Containers status

At this point of the installation, here are the containers that should be up and running.

docker container list --all --filter 'name=ovos'
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED        STATUS                 PORTS     NAMES
1446b87d7a32   smartgic/ovos-skill-volume:alpha             "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_volume
7ad46a871661   smartgic/ovos-skill-wikipedia:alpha          "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_wikipedia
b43b8cf31a43   smartgic/ovos-skill-fallback-unknown:alpha   "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_fallback_unknown
f27d3fceecec   smartgic/ovos-skill-alerts:alpha             "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_alerts
30b70c9e72ef   smartgic/ovos-skill-hello-world:alpha        "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_hello_world
f42175c6d7b8   smartgic/ovos-skill-weather:alpha            "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_weather
0ae42a59fb0b   smartgic/ovos-skill-stop:alpha               "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_stop
5760fb22deb9   smartgic/ovos-skill-date-time:alpha          "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_date_time
73f4d4b0a091   smartgic/ovos-skill-personal:alpha           "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_personal
219eb6254d32   smartgic/ovos-listener-dinkum:alpha          "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_listener
31f5d5e7a1ec   smartgic/ovos-audio:alpha                    "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_audio
05e94905b867   smartgic/ovos-core:alpha                     "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_core
d256c2e7b6f3   smartgic/ovos-phal:alpha                     "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_phal
a4db13a597a4   smartgic/ovos-phal-admin:alpha               "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   25 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_phal_admin
d157740c9965   smartgic/ovos-messagebus:alpha               "/bin/bash -c ovos-m…"   25 hours ago   Up 8 hours (healthy)             ovos_messagebus
6e3536dcfae5   smartgic/ovos-cli:alpha                      "sleep infinity"         25 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_cli

podman container list --all --filter 'name=ovos'
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED        STATUS                 PORTS     NAMES
1446b87d7a32   smartgic/ovos-skill-volume:alpha             "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_volume
7ad46a871661   smartgic/ovos-skill-wikipedia:alpha          "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_wikipedia
b43b8cf31a43   smartgic/ovos-skill-fallback-unknown:alpha   "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_fallback_unknown
f27d3fceecec   smartgic/ovos-skill-alerts:alpha             "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_alerts
30b70c9e72ef   smartgic/ovos-skill-hello-world:alpha        "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_hello_world
f42175c6d7b8   smartgic/ovos-skill-weather:alpha            "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_weather
0ae42a59fb0b   smartgic/ovos-skill-stop:alpha               "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_stop
5760fb22deb9   smartgic/ovos-skill-date-time:alpha          "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_date_time
73f4d4b0a091   smartgic/ovos-skill-personal:alpha           "ovos-skill-launcher…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_skill_personal
219eb6254d32   smartgic/ovos-listener-dinkum:alpha          "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_listener
31f5d5e7a1ec   smartgic/ovos-audio:alpha                    "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_audio
05e94905b867   smartgic/ovos-core:alpha                     "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_core
d256c2e7b6f3   smartgic/ovos-phal:alpha                     "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   18 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_phal
a4db13a597a4   smartgic/ovos-phal-admin:alpha               "/bin/bash /usr/loca…"   25 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_phal_admin
d157740c9965   smartgic/ovos-messagebus:alpha               "/bin/bash -c ovos-m…"   25 hours ago   Up 8 hours (healthy)             ovos_messagebus
6e3536dcfae5   smartgic/ovos-cli:alpha                      "sleep infinity"         25 hours ago   Up 8 hours                       ovos_cli