diff --git a/packages/create-project/src/helpers/install.ts b/packages/create-project/src/helpers/install.ts
index 724ef05e8..d9aac6843 100644
--- a/packages/create-project/src/helpers/install.ts
+++ b/packages/create-project/src/helpers/install.ts
@@ -75,9 +75,13 @@ export async function replaceSdkVersion({ root, sdkVersion }: InstallArgs): Prom
   const fileName = `${root}/package.json`;
 
   const packageJson = JSON.parse(await readFile(fileName, 'utf8'));
-  for (const packageName in packageJson.dependencies) {
-    if (packageName.startsWith('@temporalio/')) {
-      packageJson.dependencies[packageName] = sdkVersion;
+  for (const depType of ['dependencies', 'devDependencies', 'peerDependencies']) {
+    if (packageJson[depType]) {
+      for (const packageName in packageJson[depType]) {
+        if (packageName.startsWith('@temporalio/')) {
+          packageJson[depType][packageName] = sdkVersion;
+        }
+      }
     }
   }
   await writeFile(fileName, JSON.stringify(packageJson, null, 2));
diff --git a/scripts/init-from-verdaccio.js b/scripts/init-from-verdaccio.js
index 9709a0f1b..141ecb3b5 100644
--- a/scripts/init-from-verdaccio.js
+++ b/scripts/init-from-verdaccio.js
@@ -14,7 +14,16 @@ async function main() {
     console.log('spawning npx @temporalio/create with args:', initArgs);
     try {
       const npmConfigFile = resolve(registryDir, 'npmrc-custom');
-      const npmConfig = `@temporalio:registry=http://127.0.0.1:4873`;
+      let npmConfig = `@temporalio:registry=http://127.0.0.1:4873`;
+
+      if (!process.env?.['CI']) {
+        // When testing on dev's local machine, uses an isolated NPM cache directory to avoid mixing
+        // existing @temporalio/* cached packages with the ones from the local registry. We don't do
+        // that in CI though, as it is not needed (i.e. there should be no such cached packages yet)
+        // and would slow down the tests (i.e. it requires redownloading ALL packages).
+        npmConfig += `\ncache=${resolve(registryDir, 'npm-cache')}`;
+      }
+
       writeFileSync(npmConfigFile, npmConfig, { encoding: 'utf-8' });
 
       await spawnNpx(
diff --git a/scripts/utils.js b/scripts/utils.js
index 397417514..4f82aeef4 100644
--- a/scripts/utils.js
+++ b/scripts/utils.js
@@ -50,4 +50,4 @@ async function spawnNpx(args, opts) {
   await waitOnChild(spawn(npx, npxArgs, { ...opts, shell }));
 }
 
-module.exports = { kill, spawnNpx, ChildProcessError, shell, sleep };
+module.exports = { kill, spawnNpx, waitOnChild, ChildProcessError, shell, sleep };