Improvements to deps and logging

prep/installNodeDependencies.ts

@@ -133,20 +133,25 @@ export const installNodeDependencies: PrepDefinition = {
       };
     }
 
-    log.info(`running: ${resolved.command} ${resolved.args.join(" ")}`);
+    const fullCommand = `${resolved.command} ${resolved.args.join(" ")}`;
+    log.info(`running: ${fullCommand}`);
     const result = await spawn({
       cmd: resolved.command,
       args: resolved.args,
       env: { PATH: process.env.PATH || "", HOME: process.env.HOME || "" },
+      onStdout: (chunk) => process.stdout.write(chunk),
       onStderr: (chunk) => process.stderr.write(chunk),
     });
 
     if (result.exitCode !== 0) {
+      // combine stdout and stderr for better error context (pnpm often outputs errors to stdout)
+      const output = [result.stdout, result.stderr].filter(Boolean).join("\n").trim();
+      const errorMessage = output || `exited with code ${result.exitCode}`;
       return {
         language: "node",
         packageManager,
         dependenciesInstalled: false,
-        issues: [result.stderr || `${resolved.command} exited with code ${result.exitCode}`],
+        issues: [`\`${fullCommand}\` failed:\n${errorMessage}`],
       };
     }