Mycroft blacklisted skills not working
To blacklist skills, you have to edit your mycroft.conf file. I had trouble removing some of the default skills in Mycroft and it was simply finding the right names to add to the blacklisted skills section.
Find skill name to blacklist
Find the exact skill name using mycroft-cli-client. Use the Mycroft command:
: skills
Blacklist a default Mycroft skill
Backup your mycroft.conf! Put this in your skills section of the conf. Edit to your needs, this blocks everything. NOTE that final comma after the array.
"blacklisted_skills": ["fallback-query.mycroftai","fallback-unknown.mycroftai","fallback-wolfram-alpha.mycroftai","mycroft-alarm.mycroftai","mycroft-audio-record.mycroftai","mycroft-configuration.mycroftai","mycroft-date-time.mycroftai","mycroft-fallback-duck-duck-go.mycroftai","mycroft-hello-world.mycroftai","mycroft-installer.mycroftai","mycroft-ip.mycroftai","mycroft-joke.mycroftai","mycroft-naptime.mycroftai","mycroft-npr-news.mycroftai","mycroft-personal.mycroftai","mycroft-playback-control.mycroftai","mycroft-reminder.mycroftai","mycroft-singing.mycroftai","mycroft-speak.mycroftai","mycroft-spelling.mycroftai","mycroft-wiki.mycroftai","mycroft-support-helper.mycroftai","mycroft-timer.mycroftai","mycroft-volume.mycroftai","mycroft-weather.mycroftai","mycroft-version-checker.mycroftai"],
Here is a version that keeps a few critical skills and fallback + wolfram alpha. This is more practical than the line above.
"blacklisted_skills": ["fallback-unknown.mycroftai","mycroft-alarm.mycroftai","mycroft-fallback-duck-duck-go.mycroftai","mycroft-hello-world.mycroftai","mycroft-installer.mycroftai","mycroft-ip.mycroftai","mycroft-joke.mycroftai","mycroft-npr-news.mycroftai","mycroft-personal.mycroftai","mycroft-playback-control.mycroftai","mycroft-reminder.mycroftai","mycroft-singing.mycroftai","mycroft-speak.mycroftai","mycroft-spelling.mycroftai","mycroft-wiki.mycroftai","mycroft-support-helper.mycroftai","mycroft-timer.mycroftai","mycroft-volume.mycroftai","mycroft-weather.mycroftai"],
After you blacklist, you can remove anything you don't want, or everything at all. Default apps that aren't blacklisted will be reinstalled at next startup of mycroft. You can put this in rm-mycroft-defaults.sh and run it if you want to remove all default skills. Edit the list to your needs.
msm remove mycroft-stop msm remove mycroft-volume msm remove mycroft-naptime msm remove fallback-query msm remove mycroft-reminder msm remove mycroft-weather msm remove mycroft-support-helper msm remove mycroft-installer msm remove fallback-wolfram-alpha msm remove mycroft-alarm msm remove mycroft-audio-record msm remove mycroft-pairing msm remove mycroft-timer msm remove mycroft-ip msm remove mycroft-configuration msm remove mycroft-personal msm remove mycroft-fallback-duck-duck-go msm remove mycroft-spelling msm remove mycroft-playback-control msm remove mycroft-wiki msm remove fallback-unknown msm remove mycroft-speak msm remove mycroft-version-checker msm remove mycroft-joke msm remove mycroft-hello-world msm remove mycroft-singing msm remove mycroft-date-time
External Resources
- https://community.mycroft.ai/t/permanently-disable-default-skills/3278/9 - this is where I found the answer
- https://mycroft-ai.gitbook.io/docs/skill-development/faq#how-do-i-disable-a-skill - THIS IS WRONG. Don't use it.