Basic Commands
Now that your Mycroft Device is Paired with home.mycroft.ai, you may begin issuing commands. Try these to get started.
You issue a command to Mycroft by Speaking the Wake Word (e.g. "Hey Mycroft"), awaiting acknowledgement from Mycroft, and then Speaking the command itself (aka the utterance).
When you issue a command, you intend for Mycroft to react in a certain way. Your utterance contains an Intent. Mycroft uses natural language processing to compare the words in your utterance to expected phrases or keywords as supplied by the installed Skills. When Mycroft determines that there is a match between your utterance and a specific expectation (the phrases/keywords), the Skill that supplied the matching expectation is notified so that it can respond to your command.
Mycroft comes with a collection of Skills installed by default. Each Skill supplies a set of Intents, and each Intent has a set of expected phrases or keywords. Each of the default Skills is introduced below with a brief description, followed by a sampling of expected utterances (usually grouped by Intent). Additional Skills may be added to your Mycroft Device; please see Installing New Skills.
Have fun exploring natural language processing by trying these commands with variations to the wording and phrasing.
The Default Skills
Alarm
Manages a collection of alarms. Weekly repetition is supported.
Set an alarm
Hey Mycroft, wake me in two hours Hey Mycroft, wake me up at 10:23pm Hey Mycroft, set an alarm for two hours Hey Mycroft, set an alarm for 3pm Hey Mycroft, add an alarm for Monday at 8:20 Hey Mycroft, create alarms for every weekday at 6 Hey Mycroft, start a repeating alarm for Fridays at 9:30pm Hey Mycroft, set an alarm <- - - - - Mycroft will ask WHEN
Snooze the active alarm
Hey Mycroft, snooze <- - - - - Defaults to 9 minutes Hey Mycroft, snooze for 15 minutes Hey Mycroft, give me 2 more hours
Delete/stop/cancel/dismiss/remove
Hey Mycroft, stop the alarm Hey Mycroft, delete the Tuesday alarm for 9 Hey Mycroft, remove all alarms
Query alarms
Hey Mycroft, when is the next alarm? Hey Mycroft, what are the alarms for today?
Change alarm sound
Hey Mycroft, change the sound of the alarm
Audio Record
Captures audio to a file that can be played back. The file can be deleted.
Record
Duration is 60-seconds unless overridden. The new duration value is used until it is overridden.
Hey Mycroft, record Hey Mycroft, record audio Hey Mycroft, start recording Hey Mycroft, record me for 6 seconds
Playback
Hey Mycroft, play record Hey Mycroft, play back the audio Hey Mycroft, playback recording
Delete the file
Hey Mycroft, delete audio Hey Mycroft, erase recording Hey Mycroft, record clear
Configuration
Interacts with the Device configuration both locally and at home.mycroft.ai.
Query the registered name of this Mycroft Device
Hey Mycroft, what is your name?
Query the registered location of this Mycroft Device
Hey Mycroft, where are you? Hey Mycroft, tell me your state
Query which listener is being used to detect the Wake Word
Hey Mycroft, tell me the wake word listener Hey Mycroft, what is the listener?
Command Mycroft to update the configuration both locally and at home.mycroft.ai
Hey Mycroft, configuration update Hey Mycroft, update config
For developers: Select which listener to use
Hey Mycroft, set the listener to precise Hey Mycroft, set the listener to default
For developers: Enable or disable the development version of Precise listener
Hey Mycroft, enable the precise dev model Hey Mycroft, disable the new precise model
Date & Time
Mycroft answers inquiries about Dates (specific dates, relative dates, holidays, leap year, weekends, etc.) and Time (future or current, local or other location). Mycroft's response to a Date inquiry attempts to supply the 'missing information' and selectively includes: day-of-week, the calendar date, and the quantity of days from now. When answering inquiries about Time, Mycroft may optionally take advantage of the display on the enclosure.
Query current time (in location)
Hey Mycroft, the time now please Hey Mycroft, what time is it in Paris?
Query future time (in location)
Hey Mycroft, what time will it be in 2 hours? Hey Mycroft, tell me the time 6 hours from now in Paris?
On some enclosures: Display the time (in location)
Hey Mycroft, display the time Hey Mycroft, display the time in Paris
Query a holiday
Hey Mycroft, when is Labor Day? Hey Mycroft, what day is Christmas in 2025?
Query next leap year
Hey Mycroft, when is the next leap year?
Query a specific date
Hey Mycroft, when in July 1st?
Query a relative date
Hey Mycroft, what is today's date? Hey Mycroft, what is today? Hey Mycroft, when is next Tuesday? Hey Mycroft, what is 6 days from now? Hey Mycroft, when in next Friday?
Query weekend dates
Hey Mycroft, what was last weekend? Hey Mycroft, what were the days last weekend? Hey Mycroft, what are the dates this weekend? Hey Mycroft, what are the days for next weekend?
Hello World
Hello World is a well-documented Skill that serves as a starting point for code development. Pleasantries with Mycroft are used as examples.
Hey Mycroft, greetings Hey Mycroft, hello world
Hey Mycroft, thank you
Hey Mycroft, how are you doing? Hey Mycroft, how was your day?
IP
Query the SSID or the IP Address (aka the network address) of the Mycroft Device.
Query the IP address
Hey Mycroft, what is your IP address? Hey Mycroft, tell me your network address Hey Mycroft, what network are you connected to?
Query the SSID
Hey Mycroft, what SSID are you on? Hey Mycroft, what wifi network are you using? Hey Mycroft, what network are you connected to?
Jokes
Mycroft uses pyjokes as the source of jokes to tell.
Hey Mycroft, tell me a joke Hey Mycroft, make me laugh Hey Mycroft, brighten my day with a Chuck Norris joke Hey Mycroft, tell me a non-offensive joke
Naptime
While 'napping' Mycroft will ignore utterances other than "Wake up".
Begin nap
Hey Mycroft, go to sleep Hey Mycroft, nap time
End nap
Hey Mycroft, wake up
NPR News
Plays the RSS audio feed for the requested station. If no station is specified or if the request is unknown, a default station is selected based on Device location. Stations include: ABC (Australia), AP, BBC, CBC, DLF, Ekot, FOX, GPB, NPR, PBS, RDP, RNE, TSF, OE3, VRT, WDR, YLE.
Play the news
Hey Mycroft, what's the news? Hey Mycroft, play the BBC news Hey Mycroft, what are the headlines?
Restart the broadcast
Hey Mycroft, start over Hey Mycroft, restart news
Stop playing the news
Hey Mycroft, stop
Personal
Ask about the "birth" and parentage of Mycroft, and get a taste of the community fostering this open source artificial intelligence.
Hey Mycroft, who are you? Hey Mycroft, when were you created? Hey Mycroft, what are you? Hey Mycroft, where were you born? Hey Mycroft, who made you? Hey Mycroft, do you even rhyme? Hey Mycroft, do you dream?
Playback Control
Common commands for controlling a music service.
Pause the music
Hey Mycroft, pause Hey Mycroft, pause the song
Resume the paused music
Hey Mycroft, resume song Hey Mycroft, resume play
Next track
Hey Mycroft, next track
Previous track
Hey Mycroft, previous track
Play
User provides a genre/artist/title/playlist/service. Depending on the music service, a dialog may be initiated.
Hey Mycroft, play my summer playlist Hey Mycroft, play Pandora Hey Mycroft, play something by hermitude Hey Mycroft, play uptown funk on youtube
Reminder
Manages a collection of reminders. A Reminder is similar to an Alarm but instead of a beep Mycroft speaks the User specified words.
Set a reminder
Hey Mycroft, remind me to turn off the oven in 5 minutes Hey Mycroft, add a reminder to let the dog out at 3pm Hey Mycroft, remind me to take out the trash <- - - Mycroft will ask WHEN Hey Mycroft, remind me at 5pm <- - - - - - - - - Mycroft will ask FOR WHAT Hey Mycroft, set a reminder for me <- - - Mycroft will ask WHEN and FOR WHAT
Snooze the active reminder
Hey Mycroft, snooze the reminder Hey Mycroft, remind me later
Cancel the active reminder
Hey Mycroft, okay, stop the reminder
Get reminders for a specific day
Hey Mycroft, what are my reminders for today? Hey Mycroft, do I have any reminders tomorrow?
Get next reminder
Hey Mycroft, what is my next reminder?
Delete all reminders for a specific day
Hey Mycroft, cancel today's reminders Hey Mycroft, cancel all reminders for tomorrow
Delete all reminders
Hey Mycroft, delete all reminders
Singing
Mycroft will speak the lyrics to a random pop music song.
Hey Mycroft, sing Hey Mycroft, sing me a song
Speak
Speak a phrase and have Mycroft repeat it.
Hey Mycroft, speak Mary had a little lamb Hey Mycroft, say yada yada yada Hey Mycroft, repeat hey good looking
Spelling
Mycroft will spell any word that is understood by the Speech-To-Text system.
Hey Mycroft, spell aardvark Hey Mycroft, what is the spelling of aardvark? Hey Mycroft, how do you spell word aardvark?
Stock
This Skill has been disabled.
Stop
Tell Mycroft to STOP doing whatever it is doing. Should work with all Skills.
Hey Mycroft, stop Hey Mycroft, silence Hey Mycroft, shut up
Support Helper
Captures troubleshooting information from the Mycroft Device and stores it on the 0x0.st storage service. This information is useful for your own debugging and for communicating with Support. A link to the information is emailed to the address registered at home.mycroft.ai.
Hey Mycroft, contact support Hey Mycroft, create a support ticket Hey Mycroft, troubleshoot my device Hey Mycroft, create a troubleshoot request
Timer
Manages a collection of timers. Timers are requested with a duration expressed in hours, minutes, and/or seconds. A timer may optionally be given a name. The name is useful in queries, subsequent commands, and for display purposes. All timers beep.
If you wish to command a specific expiration time (e.g. 'at 3:05pm'), please use either an Alarm or a Reminder.
Timers have a duration of less than 24-hours. When a Timer is requested with a duration greater than 24-hours, an Alarm is set instead.
Mycroft refers to a timer by it's original duration and the optional User supplied name.
When there is more than one timer with the same duration, Mycroft may include an ordinal (e.g. the second timer for 5-minutes).
The User may refer to an individual timer by its name or by the ordinal of its position in the list of timers (e.g. the third timer).
Start a timer
Hey Mycroft, I need a timer named turkey for 15 minutes Hey Mycroft, start a 10-minute timer called time to go Hey Mycroft, set a timer to take out the trash <- - - Mycroft will ask for the DURATION Hey Mycroft, ping me in 2 hours <- - - - - - - - - No NAME is associated with this timer Hey Mycroft, Start a timer <- - - - - - - - Mycroft will ask for the DURATION but not a NAME Hey Mycroft, Begin timer
Query a timer
Hey Mycroft, how's my turkey timer? Hey Mycroft, how much time is left?
Cancel the beeping timer
Hey Mycroft, cancel the timer
Cancel a timer in the list of timers
Hey Mycroft, cancel the first timer Hey Mycroft, delete the fourth timer Hey Mycroft, remove the potatoes timer Hey Mycroft, kill the turkey timer
Cancel all timers
When no timers are beeping, this command removes all timers from the list. If any timers are beeping, this command stops all of the beeping timers.
Hey Mycroft, cancel all timers Hey Mycroft, delete all timers
Mute timer
Muting stops the beep but leaves the timer in the list so that expired timers can be displayed.
Hey Mycroft, mute the timer Hey Mycroft, silence the timer
Version Checker
Check the version of the software. If an update exists, Mycroft will ask if the User wishes to update. To keep up-to-date, Mycroft automatically performs these checks on a daily basis.
Query the Mycroft software version (mycroft-core)
Hey Mycroft, check version Hey Mycroft, what is code?
Query the platform (e.g. Picroft, Mark 1) build version
Hey Mycroft, find platform version Hey Mycroft, what is platform build?
Volume
Manages Mycroft's volume level.
Query volume level
Hey Mycroft, what is the volume? Hey Mycroft, how loud?
Set volume to a numeric level (0 to 10)
In a tribute to Spinal Tap, a level of '11' is accepted (equivalent to level 10).
Hey Mycroft, increase volume to 8 Hey Mycroft, set sound to NORMAL <- - - Keyword options: NORMAL=6, QUIET=3, LOUD=9
Set volume to a percentage (0 to 100%)
Hey Mycroft, set audio to 75 percent Hey Mycroft, decrease volume to 50 percent
Set to maximum volume
Hey Mycroft, crank it all the way up Hey Mycroft, set audio to max
Increase volume by one numeric level
Hey Mycroft, raise the sound Hey Mycroft, make it higher Hey Mycroft, louder
Decrease volume by one numeric level
Hey Mycroft, lower the sound Hey Mycroft, make it quieter Hey Mycroft, softer
Mute
Hey Mycroft, mute the volume Hey Mycroft, silence the audio
Unmute
Hey Mycroft, unmute the speaker Hey Mycroft, restore the sound
Weather
An interface to OpenWeatherMap.org that supports an extensive set of queries.
Hey Mycroft, what is the weather? Hey Mycroft, what is the forecast tomorrow? Hey Mycroft, what is the weather going to be like Tuesday? Hey Mycroft, what is the weather in Houston? Hey Mycroft, when will it rain next? Hey Mycroft, how windy is it? Hey Mycroft, what's the humidity? Hey Mycroft, is it going to snow? Hey Mycroft, what's the temperature?
Wiki
Interfaces to Wikipedia.org
Query Wikipedia
Hey Mycroft, what does Wikipedia say about chocolate? Hey Mycroft, tell me about artificial intelligence Hey Mycroft, search Grace Hopper
Ask Wikipedia for more details on same subject
Hey Mycroft, tell me more Hey Mycroft, please continue
Let Wikipedia select the subject
Hey Mycroft, teach me something Hey Mycroft, tell me a random thing
The Fallback Handlers
Mycroft has two fallback handlers for the situation where the natural language processing fails to match a specific Intent and Skill; one for queries and one for unknowns.
By default, Mycroft has access to two general purpose search engines: Duck Duck Go and Wolfram Alpha. When the utterance is a query, Mycroft sends it to all of these Common Query search engines simultaneously. The first engine to reply successfully is the search engine selected by Mycroft to reply to the User.
If no search engine provides a successful answer to the query, or if the utterance was not a query, then Mycroft activates the Unknown Handler that responds with a variety of phrases explaining that Mycroft cannot handle the utterance.
Common Query
Sent to all fallback Common Query search engines.
Hey Mycroft, what is Frankenstein? Hey Mycroft, who is Kathryn Johnson? Hey Mycroft, how high is Mount Everest? Hey Mycroft, how many inches in a meter?
Subsequent Commands to a Common Query
A Common Query search engine may optionally support subsequent commands (e.g. "send me details") that are processed if that search engine handled the initial query.
Subsequent commands for Wolfram Alpha:
Have more details of last query emailed to User
Hey Mycroft, send me details on that Hey Mycroft, email sources to me
More information on Skills
For more information on Skills, please see the Skills section
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