NextJS install fails with incorrect npm/node version warn - node.js

Question

Update / case-closed:
It turns out I had cd'd into the directory of another, older project in my git folder -- which had npm 6.5 in package.json as a dev dependency -- without realizing it.
I'm having an odd experience starting a nextjs projct. I'm running node 16.10.0 and npm 7.24, and I install via:
% npm -v
7.24.0
% node -v
v16.10.0
npx create-next-app#latest --typescript
Yet after I answer the prompts the process fails, creating the following log file, which reports an attempt to install using npm 6.5.0:
0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 warn npm npm does not support Node.js v16.10.0
2 warn npm You should probably upgrade to a newer version of node as we
3 warn npm can't make any promises that npm will work with this version.
4 warn npm Supported releases of Node.js are the latest release of 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
5 warn npm You can find the latest version at https://nodejs.org/
6 verbose cli [
6 verbose cli '/Users/MichaelHildebrand/.nvm/versions/node/v16.10.0/bin/node',
6 verbose cli '/Users/MichaelHildebrand/git/functional-chess/node_modules/.bin/npm',
6 verbose cli 'install',
6 verbose cli '--save-exact',
6 verbose cli '--save',
6 verbose cli 'react',
6 verbose cli 'react-dom',
6 verbose cli 'next',
6 verbose cli '#next/font',
6 verbose cli 'typescript',
6 verbose cli '#types/react',
6 verbose cli '#types/node',
6 verbose cli '#types/react-dom',
6 verbose cli 'eslint',
6 verbose cli 'eslint-config-next'
6 verbose cli ]
7 info using npm#6.5.0
8 info using node#v16.10.0
9 verbose npm-session 28b31a53251e88c0
10 silly install loadCurrentTree
11 silly install readLocalPackageData
12 verbose stack TypeError: cb.apply is not a function
12 verbose stack at /Users/MichaelHildebrand/git/functional-chess/node_modules/npm/node_modules/graceful-fs/polyfills.js:285:20
12 verbose stack at FSReqCallback.oncomplete (node:fs:199:5)
13 verbose cwd /Users/MichaelHildebrand/git/functional-chess/chess-master
14 verbose Darwin 21.6.0
15 verbose argv "/Users/MichaelHildebrand/.nvm/versions/node/v16.10.0/bin/node" "/Users/MichaelHildebrand/git/functional-chess/node_modules/.bin/npm" "install" "--save-exact" "--save" "react" "react-dom" "next" "#next/font" "typescript" "#types/react" "#types/node" "#types/react-dom" "eslint" "eslint-config-next"
16 verbose node v16.10.0
17 verbose npm v6.5.0
18 error cb.apply is not a function
19 verbose exit [ 1, true ]
Why would the install via npx be attempting to use npm 6 when I clearly am at 7 in my terminal?
Can anyone explain how I could get this result, and how to fix?

Answer 1

Looks like you're using MacOs. You probably have an older version of Node/NPM installed in another directory in your PATH. Type the command which npx and which npm to see if they are in different directories. When attempting to run a command with an ambiguous path, the system will try all your path locations in order and execute the first match.