How to correctly refer to third-party executables when calling ChildProcess.exe() in Node.js?

Assume that:

• dependency-a depends on dependency-b
• dependency-a invokes the CLI of dependency-b via ChildProcess.exec()
• dependency-a has been installed to some project sample_project

Then, the following code of dependency-a is wrong because the OS simply will not find dep-b utility:

import ChildProcess from "child_process";

ChildProcess.exec(
  "dep-b So_comething",
  { encoding: "utf-8" },
  (error: ChildProcess.ExecException | null, stdout: string, stderr: string): void => {

   // ...
    
  }
);

'dep-b' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

OK, how to refer to it correctly? By "node_modules/.bin/dep-b So_comething"? Afraid it will not work always because dependency-a and/or dependency-b may not be installed directly below "sample_project/node_modules".

A failsafe way is npx (npm exec). For locally installed binary, it's resolved from the hierarchy of node_modules directories, making it unnecessary to rely on the exact path:

npx -p=dependency-b dep-b So_comething

instead of

dep-b So_comething

Alternatively, entry point of a binary can be seen in bin section of dependency-b/package.json, so a script can be executed directly. The exact path of entry script needs to resolved:

let depDir = path.parse(path.resolve('dependency-b/package.json')).dir;
exec(`node "${depDir}/bin_entry_point.js" So_comething`, ...);