diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index b55fea5ffaa..0955e546a1a 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -46027,6 +46027,7 @@
         "chai": "^4.3.6",
         "compass-preferences-model": "^2.15.1",
         "depcheck": "^1.4.1",
+        "ejson-shell-parser": "^1.2.4",
         "enzyme": "^3.11.0",
         "eslint": "^7.25.0",
         "hadron-app-registry": "^9.0.11",
@@ -58958,6 +58959,7 @@
         "chai": "^4.3.6",
         "compass-preferences-model": "^2.15.1",
         "depcheck": "^1.4.1",
+        "ejson-shell-parser": "^1.2.4",
         "enzyme": "^3.11.0",
         "eslint": "^7.25.0",
         "hadron-app-registry": "^9.0.11",
diff --git a/packages/compass-export-to-language/package.json b/packages/compass-export-to-language/package.json
index 9394e027330..d4d700c146d 100644
--- a/packages/compass-export-to-language/package.json
+++ b/packages/compass-export-to-language/package.json
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@
     "chai": "^4.3.6",
     "compass-preferences-model": "^2.15.1",
     "depcheck": "^1.4.1",
+    "ejson-shell-parser": "^1.2.4",
     "enzyme": "^3.11.0",
     "eslint": "^7.25.0",
     "hadron-app-registry": "^9.0.11",
diff --git a/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.js b/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.js
deleted file mode 100644
index 035ad3e7d72..00000000000
--- a/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.js
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-import vm from 'vm';
-
-let dummySandbox;
-
-// We do want to report the number of stages in an aggregation
-// for telemetry, but we only receive them as a string from
-// the consumers of this package. Instead, we evaluate
-// the code in a dummy sandbox environment and just count
-// the number of stages in the result. This is a little inefficient,
-// but ultimately a simpler solution than pulling in a query
-// parser here.
-export function countAggregationStagesInString(str) {
-  if (!dummySandbox) {
-    dummySandbox = vm.createContext(Object.create(null), {
-      codeGeneration: { strings: false, wasm: false },
-      microtaskMode: 'afterEvaluate',
-    });
-    vm.runInContext(
-      [
-        'BSONRegExp',
-        'DBRef',
-        'Decimal128',
-        'Double',
-        'Int32',
-        'Long',
-        'Int64',
-        'MaxKey',
-        'MinKey',
-        'ObjectID',
-        'ObjectId',
-        'BSONSymbol',
-        'Timestamp',
-        'Code',
-        'Buffer',
-        'Binary',
-      ]
-        .map((name) => `function ${name}() {}`)
-        .join('\n'),
-      dummySandbox
-    );
-  }
-
-  return vm.runInContext('(' + str + ')', dummySandbox, { timeout: 100 })
-    .length;
-}
diff --git a/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.ts b/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..19608536ad3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/compass-export-to-language/src/modules/count-aggregation-stages-in-string.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+import parseShellBSON, { ParseMode } from 'ejson-shell-parser';
+
+export function countAggregationStagesInString(source: string): number {
+  const parsed = parseShellBSON(source, { mode: ParseMode.Loose });
+  if (!Array.isArray(parsed)) {
+    throw new Error('Source expression is not an aggregation stage array');
+  }
+  return parsed.length;
+}