How do you re-initialize node-pty to a different shell type?

Question

I'm setting up an in-browser terminal using xterm.js, react, and node-pty. I've got the node-pty process running on a server via websockets. The terminal actually works and it's visible in the react UI. I'm able to initialize the terminal to node or python3 on first load using this:

        client.tty = pty.spawn("node", [], {
            name: "xterm-color",
            cols: 80,
            rows: 24,
            cwd: process.env.PWD,
            env: process.env
        });

I'm able to kill this process like this:

    self.on("message", function(client, msg) {
        if (msg === "kill") {
          client.tty.kill(9);        
        }
        client.tty && client.tty.write(msg);
    });

This listener fires anytime a character is typed into the terminal in the UI.

This doesn't feel like the idiomatic way to handle this, but what I'm looking to do, is emit a message from a websocket in the UI, which depends on react state, and respawn a new node-pty terminal with a different initial shell ie switch from node to python3.

I figured out that destroying the HTML node where the terminal exists causes the open listener on the server to fire again, but I don't think it's possible to include a message when it reopens.

    self.on("open", (client, test) => {
        client.tty = pty.spawn("node", [], {
            name: "xterm-color",
            cols: 80,
            rows: 24,
            cwd: process.env.PWD,
            env: process.env
        });

        const ttyId = client.tty._pty
        client.tty.on("exit", function(code, signal) {
            client.tty = null;
            client.close();
        });

        client.tty.on("data", (data) => {
            client.send(data);
        });
    });

My question is, how do you respawn the node-pty process and dynamically change the shell type?