diff --git a/src/spawn.ts b/src/spawn.ts
index 51141697..97d3e926 100644
--- a/src/spawn.ts
+++ b/src/spawn.ts
@@ -19,10 +19,10 @@ const debug = makeDebug('@oclif/plugin-plugins:spawn')
 
 export async function spawn(modulePath: string, args: string[] = [], {cwd, logLevel}: ExecOptions): Promise<Output> {
   return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
-    // On windows, the global path to npm could be .cmd, .exe, or .js. If it's a .js file, we need to run it with node.
-    if (process.platform === 'win32' && modulePath.endsWith('.js')) {
-      args.unshift(`"${modulePath}"`)
-      modulePath = 'node'
+    if (modulePath.endsWith('.js')) {
+      const quote = process.platform === 'win32' ? `"${modulePath}"` : modulePath
+      args.unshift(quote)
+      modulePath = process.execPath
     }
 
     debug('modulePath', modulePath)
diff --git a/test/spawn.test.ts b/test/spawn.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..39eb6cff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/spawn.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+import {expect} from 'chai'
+import {chmodSync, mkdirSync, mkdtempSync, rmSync, writeFileSync} from 'node:fs'
+import {tmpdir} from 'node:os'
+import {join} from 'node:path'
+
+import {spawn} from '../src/spawn.js'
+
+describe('spawn', () => {
+  let tempDir: string
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    tempDir = mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'spawn-test-'))
+  })
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    rmSync(tempDir, {force: true, recursive: true})
+  })
+
+  it('should invoke .js module paths via process.execPath', async () => {
+    const script = join(tempDir, 'test-script.js')
+    writeFileSync(script, '#!/usr/bin/env nonexistent-node-binary\nconsole.log("spawned-ok")\n')
+    chmodSync(script, '755')
+
+    const result = await spawn(script, [], {cwd: tempDir, logLevel: 'silent'})
+
+    expect(result.stdout).to.include('spawned-ok')
+  })
+
+  it('should pass args after the .js module path', async () => {
+    const script = join(tempDir, 'echo-args.js')
+    writeFileSync(script, 'console.log(JSON.stringify(process.argv.slice(2)))\n')
+    chmodSync(script, '755')
+
+    const result = await spawn(script, ['--flag', 'value'], {cwd: tempDir, logLevel: 'silent'})
+
+    expect(result.stdout).to.include('["--flag","value"]')
+  })
+
+  it('should handle .js module paths with spaces in the path', async () => {
+    const dir = join(tempDir, 'dir with spaces')
+    mkdirSync(dir)
+    const script = join(dir, 'my script.js')
+    writeFileSync(script, 'console.log("spaces-ok")\n')
+    chmodSync(script, '755')
+
+    const result = await spawn(script, [], {cwd: tempDir, logLevel: 'silent'})
+
+    expect(result.stdout).to.include('spaces-ok')
+  })
+
+  it('should not modify non-.js module paths', async () => {
+    const script = join(tempDir, 'test-bin')
+    writeFileSync(script, `#!/usr/bin/env bash\necho "bin-ok"\n`)
+    chmodSync(script, '755')
+
+    const result = await spawn(script, [], {cwd: tempDir, logLevel: 'silent'})
+
+    expect(result.stdout).to.include('bin-ok')
+  })
+})