[Devs] I wonder what Cortana's API is going to be like

[Amrykid]

I hope MS will introduce something along the lines of "Cortana Background Agents". It would allow developers to introduce commands without having to start an application. A good example would be a dictionary definition app or a WolframAlpha app.

You could say "define 'cool'" which would trigger a dictionary defining background agent.

Code wise, it might look like this:

using System;

public class DictionaryDefinitionAgent: CortanaBackgroundAgent
{
    public override Task InvokeAsync(CortanaWrapper cortana, SpeechAgentInvokedEventArgs args)
    {
        //Entry point for the background agent.
        var deferral = await args.GetDeferral(); .//We know this task may take longer than 3 seconds so let the system know this. Cortana could say "hold on a second".
        var wordToDefine = args.Arguments[0]; //Get "cool"

        //insert magic code to get definition here

        cortana.Say("The definition of {0} is \"{1}\", wordToDefine, definition); //tell Cortana to say the definition
        deferral.Complete();
    }
}

The code above will grab the definition for the specified word and show it from inside of Cortana, without starting a dictionary app or performing a Bing search. There are other uses for this such as a calculator or a custom Google search.

Perhaps we can set triggers that would allow these agents to run at start-up (and limit it to one, specified by the user). It could be used to say or name or something.

I don't know, I just can't wait for the API to be released (if it hasn't already). What do you guys (and gals) think?