The development framework for cross-platform voice apps

Documentation - CLI - Sample App - Contributing - Twitter

app.setHandler({
    LAUNCH() {
        return this.toIntent('HelloWorldIntent');
    },

    HelloWorldIntent() {
        this.ask('Hello World! What\'s your name?', 'Please tell me your name.');
    },

    MyNameIsIntent() {
        this.tell('Hey ' + this.$inputs.name.value + ', nice to meet you!');
    },
});

Jovo is the first open source framework that lets you build voice apps for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant with only one code base. Besides cross-platform development, Jovo also offers a variety of integrations and easy prototyping capabilities.

The main features of the Jovo ecosystem are:

• Jovo Framework: Build voice apps for both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
• Jovo CLI: Create, build, and deploy Jovo projects (including staging)
• Jovo Webhook: Develop and debug voice apps on your local computer
• Jovo Debugger: Test and debug voice apps in your browser
• Jovo Language Model: A consolidated language model that can be converted into Alexa Interaction Models and Dialogflow Agents

🚀 Join our newsletter for free courses on voice app development: www.jovo.tech/newsletter

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Features
  • General
  • Platform Specific Features
  • Integrations
• Tutorials
• Contributing

Installation

Read more in our Getting Started Guide.

Install the Jovo CLI:

$ npm install -g jovo-cli

Create a new Jovo project:

# Default: Create new JavaScript project
$ jovo new <directory>

# Alternative: Create new TypeScript project
$ jovo new <directory> --language typescript

Features

General

Basic Concepts

Name	Description	Docs
Command Line Tools	Create and run Jovo projects from your command line	📝
Routing	Easy routing capabilities for intents and states	📝
Data input	Deal with user specific data and request parameters (slots and entities) easily	📝
Speech and visual output	Craft your responses, including speech an visual elements	📝

Advanced Features

Name	Description	Docs
Input Validation	Define and execute different methods of validation for your user's inputs	📝
User object	Create contextual experiences with user specific data and services	📝
Speech Builder	Helpful class to create speech output and add variety to your responses	📝
i18n	Create multilingual voice apps	📝
Jovo Persistence Layer	Persist user specific data	📝
Jovo Analytics Layer	Get usage statistics and logging with analytics integrations	📝
Staging	Create and maintain different environments	📝
Plugins	Extend the Jovo Framework without having to mess with its core code and architecture	📝
Testing	Use the Jovo TestSuite to integrate unit tests into your voice app project	📝

Platform Specific Features

Jovo is not a common denominator solution. You can access platform specific features for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. See a list of supported features below.

Amazon Alexa

Name	Description	Docs
Audioplayer	Build Alexa Audioplayer Skills	📝
VideoApp	Build Alexa VideoApp Skills	📝
Alexa Cards	Create visual output with home cards for Alexa Skills	📝
Alexa Device Address	Access users' device location	📝
Alexa Lists	Access users' To Do and Shopping Lists	📝
Alexa Verifier	Makes it possible to host your Alexa skill on your own server instead of AWS Lambda	📝
Alexa Dialog Interface	Use Alexa's Dialog Directives for multi-turn conversations	📝
Echo Show Render Templates	Display visual elements on Echo Show	📝
Progressive Responses	Keep your users engaged while processing a longer request	📝
Skill Events	Get notified when an event (e.g. Skill enabled/disabled) occurs	📝
CanFulfillIntentRequest	Add name-free interaction to your skill and increase your skill's discoverability	📝
Game Engine	Provides the toolset to receive Echo Button events	📝
Gadget Controller	Allows you to control the user's Echo Buttons	📝
In-Skill-Purchasing (ISP)	Allows you to sell premium content	📝
Amazon Pay	Sell physical goods and services through Alexa	📝
Reminders API	Allows you to set reminders for your user	📝
Settings API	Allows you to get your user's settings information	📝
Proactive Events API	Send proactive events,which work as notifications, to your user	📝
Playback Controller	Process audio player requests coming from, for example, touch controls on Alexa-enabled devices	📝

Google Assistant

Name	Description	Docs
Google Assistant Cards	Create visual Output for the Google Assistant mobile app	📝
Suggestion Chips	Display buttons to allow your users to quickly reply on mobile phones	📝
Location	Access your user's location data	📝
Media Response	Play longform audio	📝
Push Notifications	Send push notifications to your users	📝
Transactions	Sell digital and physical goods in your Google Actions	📝

Integrations

Database Integrations

See the Jovo Persistence Layer for more information on storing user specific data.

Name	Description	Docs
File Persistence	Saves user specific data in JSON file for fast prototyping and development (default)	📝
Dynamo DB	Save user specific data in AWS DynamoDB table	📝
MongoDB	Save user specific data in a MongoDB database	📝
MySQL	Save user specific data in a MySQL database	📝
Google Datastore	Save user specific data using Google Datastore	📝
Azure Cosmos DB	Save user specific data using Azure CosmosDB	📝
Google Firestore	Save user specific data in a NoSQL database by Google Firebase	📝

Analytics Integrations

See the Jovo Analytics Layer for more information on analytics features.

Name	Description	Docs
Dashbot	Chatbot and Voice App Analytics including Usage Metrics, Behavior Flows, and Live Interaction Transcripts	📝
Chatbase	Voice App Analytics including Usage Metrics, Session Flows and Link Tracking	📝
Botanalytics	AI powered Chatbot Analytics and Voice Analytics	📝

CMS Integrations

Name	Description	Docs
Google Sheets	Manage content in a Google Spreadsheet	📝
Airtable	Manage content using Airtable	📝

CLI Integrations

See the Jovo CLI Docs for more information on CLI features.

Name	Description	Docs
nodemon	Monitor changes and automatically restart the server	📝

Tutorials

Find a quickstart guide and comprehensive tutorials here:

• General:
  • Build a cross-platform voice app in 5 simple steps
  • Build an Alexa Skill with Jovo
  • Build a Google Action with Jovo
• Account Linking:
  • Amazon Alexa with Auth0
  • Google Action with Auth0
  • Login with Amazon
• Amazon Alexa:
  • Skill Events
• Google Action:
  • Suggestion Chips

Contributing

We strongly encourage everyone who wants to help the Jovo development take a look at the following resources:

• CONTRIBUTING.md
• Step by step process
• Take a look at our issues
• Add your project to jovotech/builtwithjovo

We need your help

Jovo is a free, open source framework for voice developers. We're improving it every day and appreciate any feedback. How to support us? Just go ahead and build something cool with the framework and let us know at feedback@jovo.tech. Thanks!