Entity resolution allows us to create synonyms for our slot values, so that we can receive consistent data in our code, but still allow a user to speak in the way that makes sense for them.

Why do we need consistency, you ask? Let’s say we are using the IMDB API to pull a list of movies based on genre. The API only accepts the genre of “action”, but your skill must work when the user asks for a synonym, like “battle”, “combat”, or “war”.

Remember that the resolved value is accessed with :

this.event.request.intent.slots.YOUR_SLOT_NAME.resolutions.resolutionsPerAuthority[0].values[0].value.name;

In the case of our movie skill, YOUR_SLOT_NAME would be genre, so you can access the resolved value with:

this.event.request.intent.slots.genre.resolutions.resolutionsPerAuthority[0].values[0].value.name;