I have input_text.event_1
where the value is currently “birthday”, input_text.event_2
where the value is currently “christmas”, input_date.event_1
where the value is currently “1/1/2000”, and input_date.event_2
where the value is currently “12/25/2024”. How do I configure voice assistant to recognize a phrase like “what’s the date of birthday” and returns “1/1/2000”?
I’m guessing there’s some combination of templating and “lists”, but there are too many variables for me to continue guessing: conversations, intents, sentences, slots, lists, wildcards, yaml files…
I’ve tried variations of this in multiple files:
language: "en"
intents:
WhatsTheDateOf:
- "what's the date of {eventname}"
data:
- sentences:
- "what's the date of {eventname}"
lists:
eventname:
wildcard:
true
- "{{ states('input_text.event_1') }}"
- "{{ states('input_text.event_2') }}"
Should it be in conversations.yaml
, intent_scripts.yaml
, or a file in custom_sentences/en
? Or does the “lists” go in one file and “intents” go in another? In the intent, do I need to define my sentence twice?
I’d appreciate any help. I feel like once I see the yaml of a way that works, I’ll be able to examine it and understand how to make derivations work in the future.
Yes, @thegreekgeek@midwest.social, now knowing that I can use sentence syntax in automations, I have built 1 automation to handle my specific needs. But each trigger is a hardcoded value instead of a “variable”. For example, trigger 1 is “sentence = ‘what is the date of my birthday’” and I trigger an action conditionally to speak the value of
input_date.event_1
because I know that’s where I stored the date for “my birthday”.What would be awesome is your 2nd suggestion: passing the name of the input_date helper through to the response with a wildcard. I can’t figure out how to do that. I’ve tried defining and using slots but I just don’t understand the syntax. Which file do I define the slots in, and what is the syntax?
I did just check to see if you can pass along wildcards in an automation, which you can! I used this automation:
alias: sentence test description: trigger: - platform: conversation command: - When is [my] {date} condition: [] action: - set_conversation_response: curses, that damnable {{ trigger.slots.game }} enabled: false - choose: - conditions: - condition: template value_template: '{{ ''birthday'' in trigger.slots.date }}' sequence: - set_conversation_response: >- curses, that damnable {{ trigger.slots.date }}! It completely slipped my mind - conditions: - condition: template value_template: '{{ ''christmas'' in trigger.slots.date }}' sequence: - set_conversation_response: sir you know when {{ trigger.slots.date }} is!
This should give you a framework to build off of. It looks like when you don’t define a list of slots in an intent it just passes the wildcard along in a slot.
That is HUGE! Thank you, @thegreekgeek@midwest.social! This makes customizing conversations from automations so much more powerful and flexible!
No problem! I’ve been puttering around trying to figure this out and this post gave me the push I needed lol
I’m embarassed but very pleased that your example also taught me about
set_conversation_response
! I had been using tts.speak, which meant I had to define a specific media player, which wasn’t always I wanted to do. This is great!