diff --git a/packages/usdk/packages/upstreet-agent/packages/react-agents-node/install-agent.mjs b/packages/usdk/packages/upstreet-agent/packages/react-agents-node/install-agent.mjs
index 0b4c7aefa..c77a4f9a1 100644
--- a/packages/usdk/packages/upstreet-agent/packages/react-agents-node/install-agent.mjs
+++ b/packages/usdk/packages/upstreet-agent/packages/react-agents-node/install-agent.mjs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { mkdirp } from 'mkdirp';
 import { rimraf } from 'rimraf';
 import toml from '@iarna/toml';
 import { getCurrentDirname } from '../react-agents/util/path-util.mjs';
+import { npmInstall } from '../../../../lib/npm-util.mjs';
 
 const dirname = getCurrentDirname(import.meta, process);
 const copyWithStringTransform = async (src, dst, transformFn = (s) => s) => {
@@ -97,6 +98,9 @@ export const installAgent = async (directory) => {
   };
   await removeDependencies();
 
+  // install local dependencies (from the agent's package.json)
+  await npmInstall(directory);
+
   // symlink node_modules deps
   const addDependencies = async () => {
     await Promise.all(dependencies.map(async (name) => {