Layer 1
Direct Device Control
Native Alexa voice control for lights, switches, AC, geyser, sprinklers and scripts. No code required. 15-minute setup.
Nabu Casa Smart Home Skill
Layer 2
Natural Language Queries
Free-form voice queries routed to local AI. "Alexa, ask house will the battery last tonight?" Answered from live sensor data.
Custom Alexa Skill → AWS Lambda → Ollama
Layer 3
Proactive TTS
Home Assistant speaks through the Echo Dot proactively — morning briefs, charge complete alerts, automation announcements.
alexa_media v5.15.0 (HACS)
You speak → Echo Dot → Alexa Cloud → AWS Lambda (Python 3.12, eu-west-1)
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▼ sets input_text.alexa_query = "query|timestamp"
Home Assistant (Pi 5)
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▼ automation → rest_command → Node-RED webhook
Node-RED "Alexa AI" tab
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▼ POST /api/chat (local)
Ollama qwen2.5:1.5b
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▼ {"service":"script.alexa_will_battery_last","data":{}}
HA Script runs → reads live sensors
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▼ alexa_devices.send_text_command
Echo Dot speaks ✓
🎤 Alexa, ask house battery status
🎤 Alexa, ask house will the battery last
🎤 Alexa, ask house charge overnight
🎤 Alexa, ask house solar status
🎤 Alexa, ask house good night
🎤 Alexa, ask house good morning
🎤 Alexa, ask house is there loadshedding
🎤 Alexa, ask house boost the geyser
🎤 Alexa, ask house run zone 2 for 8 minutes
🎤 Alexa, ask house stop sprinklers
🎤 Alexa, ask house set aircon to 22 degrees
🎤 Alexa, ask house aircon boost
🎤 Alexa, ask house biltong status
🎤 Alexa, ask house how long has Eskom been out
🎤 Alexa, ask house start Eskom import
🎤 Alexa, ask house import to 75 percent
🎤 Alexa, turn on the geyser
🎤 Alexa, set aircon to 22 degrees
🎤 Alexa, turn off the stoep light
🎤 Alexa, discover devices
AWS Region must be eu-west-1 (Ireland) — Stockholm silently fails. Lambda is created but Alexa never reaches it. No error message.
rest_command needs a full HA restart — reload_core_config does NOT load it. Settings → System → Restart.
KV cache mismatch = 22-second responses — warmup and process nodes must have byte-identical SYSTEM prompts. One space difference = full retokenization on every query.
"Alexa-hosted" shows Amazon's ARN — if endpoint shows arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:797176512873, you chose the wrong hosting option. Start over with "Provision your own".
Alexa hears "my bottom status" — Alexa STT mishears "biltong status". Fix: add the misheard version as an example in the Ollama SYSTEM prompt.
Silent NR JS syntax error — literal \n inside a JS string causes Node-RED to silently fail. Alexa says "Checking" but nothing ever happens.