alexa-remote-control

control Amazon Alexa from command Line

The settings can now be controlled via environment variables.

EMAIL     - your login email
PASSWORD  - your login password
BROWSER   - the User-Agent your browser sends in the request header
LANGUAGE  - the Accept-Language your browser sends in the request header
AMAZON    - your Amazon domain
ALEXA     - the URL you would use for the Alexa Web App
CURL      - location of your cURL binary
OPTS      - any cURL options you require
TMP       - location of the temp dir
OATHTOOL  - command line for oathtool MFA
MFA_SECRET- the MFA secret
SPEAKVOL  - the volume for speak messages ( if set to 0, volume levels are left untouched)
NORMALVOL - if no current playing volume can be determined, fall back to normal volume
VOLMAXAGE - max. age in minutes before volume is re-read from API
DEVICEVOLNAME   - a list of device names with specific volume settings (space separated)
DEVICEVOLSPEAK  - a list of speak volume levels - matching the devices above
DEVICEVOLNORMAL - a list of normal volume levels- matching the devices above
                  (current playing volume takes precedence for normal volume)
REFRESH_TOKEN - the new preference over EMAIL/PASSWORD can be obtained here: https://github.com/adn77/alexa-cookie-cli

You will very likely want to set the language to:

export LANGUAGE='de,en-US;q=0.7,en;q=0.3'

alexa-remote-control [-d <device>|ALL] -e <pause|play|next|prev|fwd|rwd|shuffle|repeat|vol:<0-100>> |
                    -b [list|<"AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF">] | -q | -n | -r <"station name"|stationid> |
                    -s <trackID|'Artist' 'Album'> | -t <ASIN> | -u <seedID> | -v <queueID> |
                    -w <playlistId> | -i | -p | -P | -S | -a | -z | -l | -h |
                    -m <multiroom_device> [device_1 .. device_X] | -lastalexa | -lastcommand

   -e : run command, additional SEQUENCECMDs:
        weather,traffic,flashbriefing,goodmorning,singasong,tellstory,
        speak:'<text/ssml>',automation:'<routine name>',sound:<soundeffect_name>,
        textcommand:'<anything you would otherwise say to Alexa>',
        playmusic:<channel e.g. TUNEIN, AMAZON_MUSIC>:'<music name>'

   -b : connect/disconnect/list bluetooth device
   -c : list 'playmusic' channels
   -q : query queue
   -n : query notifications
   -r : play tunein radio
   -s : play library track/library album
   -t : play Prime playlist
   -u : play Prime station
   -v : play Prime historical queue
   -w : play library playlist
   -i : list imported library tracks
   -p : list purchased library tracks
   -P : list Prime playlists
   -S : list Prime stations
   -a : list available devices
   -m : delete multiroom and/or create new multiroom containing devices
   -lastalexa : print device that received the last voice command
   -lastcommand : print last voice command or last voice command of specific device
   -login     : Logs in, without further command (downloads cookie)
   -z : print current volume level
   -l : logoff
   -h : help

There's also a (NOW DEPRECATED) "plain" version, which lacks some functionality (-z, -i, -p, -P, -S and no radio station names and no routines) but doesn't require 'jq' for JSON processing.

Old option MFA

In order to use MFA, one needs to obtain the MFA_SECRET from Amazon account:

1. You should have MFA using an App already working before proceeding
2. Add a new app
3. When presented with the QR-code select "can't scan code"
4. You will be presented with the MFA shared secret, something like 1234 5678 9ABC DEFG HIJK LMNO PQRS TUVW XYZ0 1234 5678 9ABC DEFG
5. Now you have to generate a valid response code via oathtool -b --totp "<MFA shared secret from above>" and enter that in the web form
6. Going from here the MFA shared secret becomes the MFA_SECRET for the alexa_remote_control script; Treat that MFA_SECRET just like your password - DO NOT share it anywhere!!!

It is assumed that MFA secured accounts are less likely to get a captcha response during login - that's why MFA might yield better results if the plain username/password didn't work for you.

New option REFRESH_TOKEN

The Alexa-App way of logging in is using a REFRESH_TOKEN which allows for obtaining the session cookies. This replaces EMAIL/PASSWORD/MFA so those will not be exposed in any scripts anymore. For convinience I created a binary, ready to run: https://github.com/adn77/alexa-cookie-cli

https://blog.loetzimmer.de/2021/09/alexa-remote-control-shell-script.html