diff --git a/packages/api/src/parse-cli.ts b/packages/api/src/parse-cli.ts
index 5e2a742a31..ed415ea433 100755
--- a/packages/api/src/parse-cli.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/parse-cli.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import Yargs, { Options, Argv } from "yargs";
+import yargs from "yargs";
 import yargsToMist from "./yargs-to-mist";
 import {
   CamelKeys,
@@ -14,8 +14,6 @@ const DEFAULT_ARWEAVE_GATEWAY_PREFIXES = [
   "https://gateway.arweave.net/",
 ];
 
-const yargs = Yargs() as unknown as Argv;
-
 function coerceArr(arg: any) {
   if (!Array.isArray(arg)) {
     const arr = [];
@@ -80,19 +78,14 @@ export type CliArgs = ReturnType<typeof parseCli>;
 // before passing it to yargs completely breaks type inference, which is a huge shame.
 // So... this monkeypatches yargs to capture that variable. If you know of a more
 // elegant way, I'd love to hear it!
-let allOptions: { [key: string]: Options };
+let args;
 const originalOpts = yargs.options;
-yargs.options = function (...args) {
-  if (!allOptions) {
-    allOptions = args[0];
-  }
-  return originalOpts.call(this, ...args);
+yargs.options = function (arg) {
+  args = arg;
+  return originalOpts.call(this, arg);
 };
 
 export default function parseCli(argv?: string | readonly string[]) {
-  if (!argv) {
-    argv = process.argv.slice(2);
-  }
   const parsedProm = yargs
     .options({
       port: {
@@ -466,8 +459,9 @@ export default function parseCli(argv?: string | readonly string[]) {
     .parse(argv);
   // yargs returns a Promise even tho we don't have any async middlewares
   const parsed = parsedProm as Awaited<typeof parsedProm>;
+
   if (parsed.json === true) {
-    const mistOutput = yargsToMist(allOptions);
+    const mistOutput = yargsToMist(args);
     console.log(JSON.stringify(mistOutput));
     process.exit(0);
   }