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-krem.ddxfish 
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.