diff --git a/core/src/util/ext-tools.ts b/core/src/util/ext-tools.ts
index 71bd016c33..26911ce5fe 100644
--- a/core/src/util/ext-tools.ts
+++ b/core/src/util/ext-tools.ts
@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@ import AsyncLock from "async-lock"
 import type { PluginContext } from "../plugin-context.js"
 import { LogLevel } from "../logger/logger.js"
 import { uuidv4 } from "./random.js"
-import { streamLogs, waitForProcess } from "./process.js"
 import { pipeline } from "node:stream/promises"
 import type { MaybeSecret } from "./secrets.js"
+import split2 from "split2"
 
 const { pathExists, createWriteStream, ensureDir, chmod, remove, move, createReadStream } = fsExtra
 
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ export abstract class CliWrapper {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Helper for using spawn with live log streaming. Waits for the command to finish before returning.
+   * Helper for using exec with live log streaming. Waits for the command to finish before returning.
    *
    * If an error occurs and no output has been written to stderr, we use stdout for the error message instead.
    *
@@ -134,20 +134,19 @@ export abstract class CliWrapper {
     env,
     log,
     ctx,
-    errorPrefix,
   }: SpawnParams & { errorPrefix: string; ctx: PluginContext; statusLine?: Log }) {
-    const proc = await this.spawn({ args, cwd, env, log })
+    const logEventContext = {
+      origin: this.name,
+      level: "verbose" as const,
+    }
 
-    streamLogs({
-      proc,
-      name: this.name,
-      ctx,
+    const logStream = split2()
+    logStream.on("data", (line: Buffer) => {
+      const logLine = line.toString()
+      ctx.events.emit("log", { timestamp: new Date().toISOString(), msg: logLine, ...logEventContext })
     })
 
-    await waitForProcess({
-      proc,
-      errorPrefix,
-    })
+    return await this.spawnAndWait({ args, cwd, env, log, stdout: logStream, stderr: logStream })
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/core/src/util/process.ts b/core/src/util/process.ts
index 8cf013a6bf..1c6df6168d 100644
--- a/core/src/util/process.ts
+++ b/core/src/util/process.ts
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 import type { ChildProcess } from "child_process"
 import split2 from "split2"
-import { RuntimeError } from "../exceptions.js"
 import type { PluginContext } from "../plugin-context.js"
 import type { StringLogLevel } from "../logger/logger.js"
 
@@ -57,45 +56,6 @@ export function waitForProcessExit({ proc }: { proc: ChildProcess }): Promise<vo
   })
 }
 
-export function waitForProcess({ proc, errorPrefix }: { proc: ChildProcess; errorPrefix: string }): Promise<void> {
-  const logStream = split2()
-
-  let stdout = ""
-  let stderr = ""
-
-  if (proc.stderr) {
-    proc.stderr.pipe(logStream)
-    proc.stderr.on("data", (data) => {
-      stderr += data
-    })
-  }
-
-  if (proc.stdout) {
-    proc.stdout.pipe(logStream)
-    proc.stdout.on("data", (data) => {
-      stdout += data
-    })
-  }
-
-  return new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
-    proc.on("error", reject)
-    proc.on("close", (code) => {
-      if (code === 0) {
-        resolve()
-      } else {
-        // Some commands (e.g. the pulumi CLI) don't log anything to stderr when an error occurs. To handle that,
-        // we use `stdout` for the error output instead (in case information relevant to the user is included there).
-        const errOutput = stderr.length > 0 ? stderr : stdout
-        reject(
-          new RuntimeError({
-            message: `${errorPrefix}:\n${errOutput}\n\nExit code: ${code}`,
-          })
-        )
-      }
-    })
-  })
-}
-
 export class LogLineTimeoutError extends Error {
   private stdout: string
   private stderr: string