Execute custom build script on ASK CLI(v2) deployment command

ASK CLI(v1) has a custom hook to deploy your skill. And ASK CLI(v2) has a similar one.

Step by Step

Create hook directory

At first, we need to create the hook script directory.

$ mkdir hooks

Get default script from GitHub

Version 2’s hook script will overwrite the default script.

So we have to provide a install and package command in your hook script.

When you forgot to add it, we will failed to build.

==================== Deploy Skill Infrastructure ====================
  ✖ Deploy Alexa skill infrastructure for region "default"
[Error]: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/Users/development/sandbox/ForkedExample/.ask/lambda/build.zip'

Most simplest way is get the default script from GitHub.

$ cd hooks
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexa/ask-cli/master/lib/b
uiltins/build-flows/nodejs-npm/build.sh
$ chmod +x ./build.sh

Edit the script

We can put any code into the hooks/build.sh file. This example is adding a npm run build command.

install_dependencies() {
  [[ $DO_DEBUG == true ]] && display_debug "Installing NodeJS dependencies based on the package.json." 
  [[ $DO_DEBUG == false ]] && QQ=true # decide if quiet flag will be appended

  npm install --production ${QQ:+--quiet}
  // Add a new command!
  npm run build ${QQ:+--quiet}
  return $?
}

Conclusion

We can still customize the deployment script in ASK CLI’s deploy command.

So we’re able to use TypeScript easily.