diff --git a/libs/nx-serverless/src/builders/offline/schema.json b/libs/nx-serverless/src/builders/offline/schema.json
index ab71400d..d22bf13a 100644
--- a/libs/nx-serverless/src/builders/offline/schema.json
+++ b/libs/nx-serverless/src/builders/offline/schema.json
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
     },
     "port": {
       "type": "number",
-      "default": "7777",
+      "default": 7777,
       "description": "The port to inspect the process on. Setting port to 0 will assign random free ports to all forked processes."
     },
     "runtimeArgs": {
diff --git a/libs/nx-serverless/src/utils/packagers/index.ts b/libs/nx-serverless/src/utils/packagers/index.ts
index 954027df..8ad292c9 100644
--- a/libs/nx-serverless/src/utils/packagers/index.ts
+++ b/libs/nx-serverless/src/utils/packagers/index.ts
@@ -127,6 +127,13 @@ export function preparePackageJson(
           join(options.package, packagerInstance.lockfileName),
           result.stdout.toString()
         );
+      } else if (packagerInstance === NPM) {
+        // need to install deps for dep-graph to work
+        const result = packagerInstance.install(dirname(packageJsonPath));
+        if (result.error) {
+          logger.error('ERROR: generating lock file!');
+          return of({ success: false, error: result.error.toString() });
+        }
       }
       // Get the packagelist with dependency graph and depth=2 level
       // review: Change depth to options?