npm exec `could not determine executable to run`

[rotu]

protobuf.js version: 7.3.0 npm version 10.8.1

When attempting to run via npm exec, I'm getting an error message:

> npx protobufjs
npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\dan\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2024-06-06T17_02_43_836Z-debug-0.log
> npx protobufjs-cli
npm error could not determine executable to run
npm error A complete log of this run can be found in: C:\Users\dan\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_logs\2024-06-06T17_02_46_306Z-debug-0.log

The mentioned error logs are attached. I expect one the second one (or preferably both) to launch the pbjs command line program.

Both commands fail to find the "primary" binary of the package defined by getBinFromManifest.

• In protobufjs, this is because there is no 'bin' entrypoint.
• In protobufjs-cli, this is because there are two bin entries (pbjs, pbts) and neither matches the package name.

To use the cli with npx today, one clumsy workaround is:

> npm exec --package=protobufjs-cli pbjs

2024-06-06T17_02_43_836Z-debug-0.log 2024-06-06T17_02_46_306Z-debug-0.log