mix.version() - how to save in separate directory?

My issue with mix (moving from Elixir) is that there's no "production build" of files to commit separately. (npm run prod just overwrites the same files)Basically, we only want to the mix output if it's for production, we don't want to track and commit compiled versions of the assets (only what is in resources/)

Is there a way with mix to have the output of mix.version() go to a separate directory and update the manifest files? I've tried altering the build output paths per env, but then the manifest has entry for the production assets, and mix() in blade fails because the path doesnt exist. (I can provide examples if this doesn't make sense)

Or is there a different workflow I should be using to only commit production compiled assets for release. Thanks.