diff --git a/lib/cli/entry.js b/lib/cli/entry.js
index fc196b8e234fc..5d676c3f0a8a1 100644
--- a/lib/cli/entry.js
+++ b/lib/cli/entry.js
@@ -39,15 +39,12 @@ module.exports = async (process, validateEngines) => {
   // Now actually fire up npm and run the command.
   // This is how to use npm programmatically:
   try {
-    const { exec } = await npm.load()
+    const { exec, command, args } = await npm.load()
 
     if (!exec) {
       return exitHandler()
     }
 
-    const command = npm.argv.shift()
-    const args = npm.argv
-
     if (!command) {
       output.standard(npm.usage)
       process.exitCode = 1
diff --git a/lib/npm.js b/lib/npm.js
index 892cf4b96c8a0..eb715fa803508 100644
--- a/lib/npm.js
+++ b/lib/npm.js
@@ -77,7 +77,8 @@ class Npm {
     return this.constructor.version
   }
 
-  setCmd (cmd) {
+  // Call an npm command
+  async exec (cmd, args = this.argv) {
     const Command = Npm.cmd(cmd)
     const command = new Command(this)
 
@@ -88,12 +89,6 @@ class Npm {
       process.env.npm_command = this.command
     }
 
-    return command
-  }
-
-  // Call an npm command
-  async exec (cmd, args = this.argv) {
-    const command = this.setCmd(cmd)
     return time.start(`command:${cmd}`, () => command.cmdExec(args))
   }
 
@@ -102,6 +97,8 @@ class Npm {
       const { exec = true } = await this.#load().then(r => r ?? {})
       return {
         exec,
+        command: this.argv.shift(),
+        args: this.argv,
       }
     })
   }
diff --git a/test/fixtures/mock-npm.js b/test/fixtures/mock-npm.js
index 5618a12566003..d8a4834a9abff 100644
--- a/test/fixtures/mock-npm.js
+++ b/test/fixtures/mock-npm.js
@@ -120,7 +120,6 @@ const setupMockNpm = async (t, {
   // preload a command
   command = null, // string name of the command
   exec = null, // optionally exec the command before returning
-  setCmd = false,
   // test dirs
   prefixDir = {},
   homeDir = {},
@@ -242,7 +241,11 @@ const setupMockNpm = async (t, {
     init,
     load,
     mocks: withDirs(mocks),
-    npm: { argv, excludeNpmCwd: true, ...withDirs(npmOpts) },
+    npm: {
+      argv: command ? [command, ...argv] : argv,
+      excludeNpmCwd: true,
+      ...withDirs(npmOpts),
+    },
   })
 
   if (config.omit?.includes('prod')) {
@@ -267,16 +270,6 @@ const setupMockNpm = async (t, {
   const mockCommand = {}
   if (command) {
     const Cmd = mockNpm.Npm.cmd(command)
-    if (setCmd) {
-      // XXX(hack): This is a hack to allow fake-ish tests to set the currently
-      // running npm command without running exec. Generally, we should rely on
-      // actually exec-ing the command to asserting the state of the world
-      // through what is printed/on disk/etc. This is a stop-gap to allow tests
-      // that are time intensive to convert to continue setting the npm command
-      // this way. TODO: remove setCmd from all tests and remove the setCmd
-      // method from `lib/npm.js`
-      npm.setCmd(command)
-    }
     mockCommand.cmd = new Cmd(npm)
     mockCommand[command] = {
       usage: Cmd.describeUsage,
diff --git a/test/lib/utils/reify-output.js b/test/lib/utils/reify-output.js
index fd15e25a74984..205b7baf421f7 100644
--- a/test/lib/utils/reify-output.js
+++ b/test/lib/utils/reify-output.js
@@ -8,7 +8,18 @@ const mockReify = async (t, reify, { command, ...config } = {}) => {
   const mock = await mockNpm(t, {
     command,
     config,
-    setCmd: true,
+  })
+
+  // Hack to adapt existing fake test. Make npm.command
+  // return whatever was passed in to this function.
+  // What it should be doing is npm.exec(command) but that
+  // breaks most of these tests because they dont expect
+  // a command to actually run.
+  Object.defineProperty(mock.npm, 'command', {
+    get () {
+      return command
+    },
+    enumerable: true,
   })
 
   reifyOutput(mock.npm, reify)