running mocha in the context of a npm script works but running it directly from command line does not

So when I run npm run test_w_emulator or npm run test_w_pure my mocha test completes properly

package.json

"scripts": {
    "test_w_emulator": "sh ./test.sh",
    "test_w_pure": "mocha --reporter spec"
}

test.sh

firebase -P development emulators:exec "mocha"

if i run it from the command line i get the following error

Exception during run: TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'describe')
    at exports.describe (_____\functions\node_modules\mocha\lib\mocha.js:111:26)
    at Object.<anonymous> (_____\functions\test\auth.test.ts:75:9)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1469:14)
    at Module.m._compile (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\ts-node\src\index.ts:1618:23)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1548:10)
    at Object.require.extensions.<computed> [as .ts] (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\ts-node\src\index.ts:1621:12)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1288:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1104:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1311:19)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:179:18)
    at Object.exports.requireOrImport (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\mocha\lib\nodejs\esm-utils.js:53:16)
    at async Object.exports.loadFilesAsync (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\mocha\lib\nodejs\esm-utils.js:100:20)
    at async singleRun (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\mocha\lib\cli\run-helpers.js:162:3)
    at async Object.exports.handler (C:\Users\_____\AppData\Roaming\nvm\v20.18.1\node_modules\mocha\lib\cli\run.js:375:5)

i don't fully understand why the commands work in the context of npm and not straight from the command line

i tried checking my node and java versions making sure they were in the compatibility list of the dependencies