diff --git a/e2e/utils/index.ts b/e2e/utils/index.ts
index b9ddf2b25fb56..1dd66f196ff51 100644
--- a/e2e/utils/index.ts
+++ b/e2e/utils/index.ts
@@ -592,7 +592,7 @@ export function runCommandAsync(
     exec(
       command,
       {
-        cwd: tmpProjPath(),
+        cwd: opts.cwd || tmpProjPath(),
         env: {
           CI: 'true',
           ...(opts.env || getStrippedEnvironmentVariables()),
diff --git a/e2e/vite/src/vite.test.ts b/e2e/vite/src/vite.test.ts
index f1832e42cd541..fa4d6ab534899 100644
--- a/e2e/vite/src/vite.test.ts
+++ b/e2e/vite/src/vite.test.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,14 @@ describe('Vite Plugin', () => {
       expect(result.combinedOutput).toContain(
         `Successfully ran target test for project ${lib}`
       );
+
+      // TODO(caleb): run tests from project root and make sure they still work
+      const nestedResults = await runCLIAsync(`test ${lib} --skip-nx-cache`, {
+        cwd: `${tmpProjPath()}/libs/${lib}`,
+      });
+      expect(nestedResults.combinedOutput).toContain(
+        `Successfully ran target test for project ${lib}`
+      );
     }, 100_000);
 
     it('should collect coverage', () => {
diff --git a/packages/vite/src/executors/test/vitest.impl.ts b/packages/vite/src/executors/test/vitest.impl.ts
index fd496dcb20250..4e0da54c29b18 100644
--- a/packages/vite/src/executors/test/vitest.impl.ts
+++ b/packages/vite/src/executors/test/vitest.impl.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-import { ExecutorContext } from '@nrwl/devkit';
+import { ExecutorContext, workspaceRoot } from '@nrwl/devkit';
 import { File, Reporter } from 'vitest';
 import { VitestExecutorOptions } from './schema';
+import { relative } from 'path';
 
 class NxReporter implements Reporter {
   deferred: {
@@ -46,11 +47,15 @@ export default async function* runExecutor(
   )() as Promise<typeof import('vitest/node')>);
 
   const projectRoot = context.projectGraph.nodes[context.projectName].data.root;
+  const offset = relative(workspaceRoot, context.cwd);
 
   const nxReporter = new NxReporter(options.watch);
   const settings = {
     ...options,
-    root: projectRoot,
+    // when running nx from the project root, the root will get appended to the cwd.
+    // creating an invalid path and no tests will be found.
+    // instead if we are not at the root, let the cwd be root.
+    root: offset === '' ? projectRoot : '',
     reporters: [...(options.reporters ?? []), 'default', nxReporter],
     // if reportsDirectory is not provides vitest will remove all files in the project root
     // when coverage is enabled in the vite.config.ts