diff --git a/packages/create/index.js b/packages/create/index.js
index 263e3c6e26..a4082aa9b8 100644
--- a/packages/create/index.js
+++ b/packages/create/index.js
@@ -140,6 +140,20 @@ npm_install(
     package_lock_json = "//:package-lock.json",
 )`;
 
+  let bazelDepsContent = `# Third-party dependencies fetched by Bazel
+# Unlike WORKSPACE, the content of this file is unordered.
+# We keep them separate to make the WORKSPACE file more maintainable.
+
+# Install the nodejs "bootstrap" package
+# This provides the basic tools for running and packaging nodejs programs in Bazel
+load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
+def fetch_dependencies():
+    http_archive(
+        name = "build_bazel_rules_nodejs",
+        sha256 = "65067dcad93a61deb593be7d3d9a32a4577d09665536d8da536d731da5cd15e2",
+        urls = ["https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/releases/download/3.4.2/rules_nodejs-3.4.2.tar.gz"],
+    )
+`
   let workspaceContent = `# Bazel workspace created by @bazel/create 0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER
 
 # Declares that this directory is the root of a Bazel workspace.
@@ -152,19 +166,21 @@ workspace(
     managed_directories = {"@npm": ["node_modules"]},
 )
 
-# Install the nodejs "bootstrap" package
-# This provides the basic tools for running and packaging nodejs programs in Bazel
-load("@bazel_tools//tools/build_defs/repo:http.bzl", "http_archive")
-http_archive(
-    name = "build_bazel_rules_nodejs",
-    sha256 = "65067dcad93a61deb593be7d3d9a32a4577d09665536d8da536d731da5cd15e2",
-    urls = ["https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/releases/download/3.4.2/rules_nodejs-3.4.2.tar.gz"],
-)
+load("//tools:bazel_deps.bzl", "fetch_dependencies")
+
+fetch_dependencies()
 
 ${pkgMgr === 'yarn' ? yarnInstallCmd : npmInstallCmd}`;
 
-  write('WORKSPACE.bazel', workspaceContent);
-  write('.bazelignore', `node_modules
+  write('tools/BUILD.bazel', '# No targets in this Bazel package\n')
+  write('tools/bazel_deps.bzl', bazelDepsContent);
+  // Don't name it WORKSPACE.bazel since there's a bug with managed_directories
+  write('WORKSPACE', workspaceContent);
+  write('.bazelignore', `\
+# NB: sematics here are not the same as .gitignore
+# see https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/issues/8106
+# For example, every nested node_modules directory needs to be listed here.
+node_modules
 dist
 bazel-out
 `);
@@ -182,7 +198,8 @@ bazel-out
             }
           },
           null, 4));
-  write('.gitignore', `
+  write('.gitignore', `\
+.bazelrc.user
 dist
 bazel-out
 node_modules`);