yarn workspaces adds empty folder instead of local dependency

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My repo

my basic directory structure looks like this:

backend
  src
  package.json
frontend
  apps
    admin
      src
      package.json
    user-type-1
      src
      package.json
  core
    utils
    common
  package.json
package.json
yarn.lock

my root package.json looks like this:

{
  "private": true,
  "name": "root",
  "workspaces": {
    "packages": [
      "backend",
      "frontend"
    ]
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": "^20.5.1"
  },
  "packageManager": "[email protected]",
  "scripts: { ... }
  "dependencies": {
    "typescript": "^5.1.6",
    ...
  }
  ...
}

my backend package.json looks like this:

{
  "private": true,
  "name": "@project/backend",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts: { ... }
  ...
}

my frontend package.json looks like this:

{
    "name": "@project/frontend",
    "private": true,
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "workspaces": {
        "packages": [
            "apps/admin",
            "apps/user-type-1",
            "core"
        ]
    },
    "engines": {
        "node": "^20.5.1"
    },
    "packageManager": "[email protected]",
    "scripts: { ... },
    "dependencies": {
      "@project/backend": "1.0.0",
      ...
    }
    ...
}

The backend has a bunch of things that the frontend needs, so I want to add the backend ad a dependency for the frontend.
I tried running the following:

yarn workspace @project/frontend add @project/[email protected]

Expected Behavior

  • A folder @project/backend is added inside the frontend’s node_modules
  • I am able to access backend types and more with import
  • no errors are thrown in the process

Actual Behaviour

  • A folder named @project is created inside frontend’s node-modules, but it’s empty
  • I cannot access backend types when using import
  • no errors are thrown in the process

Importing the backend from the frontend was previously working, so I am guessing this is not an issue with yarn but with some changes that I made.
However I was unable to find out what caused the yarn to fail, even after returning the package.json mostly the same as it was before.

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