Create thing

Action ID
actions.intent.CREATE_THING
Description
Construct a new entity in an app. Populate the entity's name and type using the thing.name and thing.description intent parameters.

Locale support

Functionality Locales
Preview creation using App Actions test tool en-US
User invocation from Google Assistant en-US

Example queries

The following fields represent essential information that users often provide in queries that trigger this built-in intent:

thing.name

Other supported fields

The following fields represent information that users often provide to disambiguate their needs or otherwise improve their results:

thing.@type
thing.description

Supported text values by field


Inventory availability by field


Sample XML files

For information about the shortcuts.xml schema, see Create shortcuts.xml.

Handle BII parameters

shortcuts.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample shortcuts.xml -->
<shortcuts xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <capability android:name="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
    <intent
      android:action="android.intent.action.VIEW"
      android:targetPackage="YOUR_UNIQUE_APPLICATION_ID"
      android:targetClass="YOUR_TARGET_CLASS">
      <!-- Eg. name = "Example Entity" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="thing.name"
        android:key="name"/>
      <!-- Eg. description = "Example Destination" -->
      <parameter
        android:name="thing.description"
        android:key="description"/>
    </intent>
  </capability>
</shortcuts>

actions.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
<actions>
  <action intentName="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://custom-deeplink{?name,description}">
      <!-- e.g. name = "Example Entity" -->
      <!-- (Optional) Require a field eg.name for fulfillment with required="true" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="name" intentParameter="thing.name" required="true" />
      <!-- e.g. description = "Example Destination" -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="description" intentParameter="thing.description" />
    </fulfillment>

    <!-- Provide a fallback fulfillment with no required parameters. For example, to your app search or router deeplink -->
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink" />
  </action>
</actions>

Use inline inventory

shortcuts.xml

thing.name is an intent parameter that supports inline inventory. By defining a <shortcut> for thing.name, you can uniquely identify entities that are of interest to your app or restrict fulfillment to the set of supported entities.

In the following example, when the user query matches the name_one shortcut, Assistant provides the associated shorcut identifier, ID_ONE, as the URL parameter name to fulfillment.

If there is no inventory match, the text value received in the query for thing.name is passed as-is.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample shortcuts.xml -->
<shortcuts xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <capability android:name="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
    <intent
      android:targetPackage="YOUR_UNIQUE_APPLICATION_ID"
      android:targetClass="YOUR_TARGET_CLASS">
      <parameter
        android:name="thing.name"
        android:key="name"/>
      <parameter
        android:name="thing.description"
        android:key="description"/>
    </intent>
    </capability>
    <!-- Short and long labels must be @string resource. -->
    <shortcut
      android:shortcutId="ID_ONE"
      android:shortcutShortLabel="@string/shortcut_short_label"
      android:shortcutLongLabel="@string/shortcut_long_label">
      <capability-binding android:key="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
        <parameter-binding
          android:value="name"
          android:key="thing.name"/>
      </capability-binding>
    </shortcut>
</shortcuts>

actions.xml

thing.name is an intent parameter that supports inline inventory. By defining an <entity-set> for thing.name, you can uniquely identify entities that are of interest to your app or restrict fulfillment to the set of supported entities.

In the following example, when the user query matches the name_one entity, Assistant provides the associated identifier, ID_ONE, as the URL parameter name to fulfillment.

If there is no inventory match, the text value received in the query for thing.name is passed as-is.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
<actions>
  <action intentName="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
    <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink{?name}" >
      <!-- name = "ID_ONE" or "ID_TWO"  -->
      <!-- If no inventory match, name is a text value, such as "Example Entity" -->
      <!-- (Optional) Use entityMatchRequired="true" to require inventory match for fulfillment -->
      <parameter-mapping urlParameter="name" intentParameter="thing.name" />
    </fulfillment>

    <!-- Define parameters with inventories here -->
    <parameter name="thing.name">
      <entity-set-reference entitySetId="nameEntitySet"/>
    </parameter>
  </action>

  <entity-set entitySetId="nameEntitySet">
  <!-- Provide an identifier per entity -->
    <entity identifier="ID_ONE" name="name_one" alternateName="@array/name_one_synonyms"/>
    <entity identifier="ID_TWO" name="name_two" alternateName="@array/name_two_synonyms"/>
  </entity-set>
</actions>

The url attribute associated with the entity can be used to determine the fulfillment URL if there is an inventory match. In the following example, when the user query matches the name_one entity, Assistant provides myapp://deeplink/one as the fulfillment URL.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <!-- This is a sample actions.xml -->
  <actions>
    <action intentName="actions.intent.CREATE_THING">
      <!-- Use url from inventory match for deep link fulfillment -->
      <fulfillment urlTemplate="{@url}" />

      <!-- Provide a fallback fulfillment with no required parameters. For example, to your app search or router deeplink -->
      <fulfillment urlTemplate="myapp://deeplink" />

      <!-- Define parameters with inventories here -->
      <parameter name="thing.name">
        <entity-set-reference entitySetId="nameEntitySet"/>
      </parameter>
    </action>

    <entity-set entitySetId="nameEntitySet">
      <!-- Provide a URL per entity -->
      <entity url="myapp://deeplink/one" name="name_one" alternateName="@array/name_one_synonyms"/>
      <entity url="myapp://deeplink/two" name="name_two" alternateName="@array/name_two_synonyms"/>
    </entity-set>
  </actions>

JSON-LD sample

The following JSON-LD sample provides some example values that you can use in the App Actions test tool:

{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "Thing",
  "description": "Example Destination",
  "name": "Example Entity"
}