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"],

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.