diff --git a/src/frontend/lib.nim b/src/frontend/lib.nim
index 51a72db87..205805892 100644
--- a/src/frontend/lib.nim
+++ b/src/frontend/lib.nim
@@ -466,13 +466,13 @@ when defined(ctIndex) or defined(ctTest):
       # debugPrint "WITH ARGS: ", args
       # debugPrint "OPTIONS: ", $(options.to(cstring))
 
-      let process = nodeStartProcess.spawn(path, args, options)
-
       var processOptions = options
       # important to ignore stderr, as otherwise too much of it can lead to
       # the spawned process hanging: this is a bugfix for such a situation
       processOptions.stdio = cstring"ignore"
 
+      let process = nodeStartProcess.spawn(path, args, processOptions)
+
       process.toJs.on("spawn", proc() =
         resolve(Result[NodeSubProcess, JsObject].ok(process)))