Where to set :version or :alias of the lambda function endpoint?

[FelixButzbach]

I'm submitting a...

[ ] Regression (a behavior that used to work and stopped working in a new release)
[x] Bug report  
[ ] Performance issue
[x] Feature request
[x] Documentation issue or request 
[ ] Other... Please describe: 

How can I set a specific version or alias for the lambda version as endpoint? I think I found a related issue but I was not able to extract a solution for my problem.

Expected Behavior

I would like to (easily) change the alias of the endpoint of my skill via the ask-cli.
So that I can deploy the new code to the $LATEST version but still be able to set the endpoint to :dev or :prod, for example.
I am not sure if this is a bug, a feature request or if the documentation is just not clear about it...

Current Behavior

When changing the endpoint in the skill-package/skill.json file, it is overwritten when running any of the ask deploy commands (with or without ignoring the hash and any of the --target options).
I also tried to change it in ask-resources.json in the userConfig -> sourceLambda -> arn field which causes an error.

Your Environment and Context

• ask-cli version: 2.27.0
• Operating System and version: Mac Monterey (M1 chip)
• Node.js version used for development: 14.18 locally, 14.x in the lambda function
• NPM version used for development: 6.14 locally

[FelixButzbach]

Actually, I think this is not really necessary...
I thought this might be useful to keep track of the different versions of the skill and the endpoints used for production and development.
But as I have just submitted the most recent version of the skill for certification I recognised that I will be better off always defining a new version and alias right before submitting the skill for review and use the naked lambda function (ie. $LATEST) in dev.

Although it might maybe be useful to be able to set a specific endpoint version or alias during development, for investigating bugs in a specific version, for example.
What are the reasons for the current behaviour (overwriting the endpoint when running ask deploy)?

[doiron]

I believe a good approach would be to setup two profiles on your development environment. one for Prod and one for your Dev environment. Then you can append -p [prod|dev] to your command arguments to have them interact with either skill. ie. do all the work on the new feature with -p dev until you think it's ready to launch. then run the commands with -p prod .

useful link : https://developer.amazon.com/en-US/docs/alexa/smapi/manage-credentials-with-ask-cli.html

I hope this helps, feel free to re-open if you still have questions.