diff --git a/e2e/release/src/independent-projects.test.ts b/e2e/release/src/independent-projects.test.ts
index 9333d03ed8..98fbf5e412 100644
--- a/e2e/release/src/independent-projects.test.ts
+++ b/e2e/release/src/independent-projects.test.ts
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ describe('nx release - independent projects', () => {
   beforeAll(() => {
     newProject({
       unsetProjectNameAndRootFormat: false,
+      packages: ['@nx/js'],
     });
 
     pkg1 = uniq('my-pkg-1');
diff --git a/e2e/release/src/private-js-packages.test.ts b/e2e/release/src/private-js-packages.test.ts
index e172189c5f..ca23879e55 100644
--- a/e2e/release/src/private-js-packages.test.ts
+++ b/e2e/release/src/private-js-packages.test.ts
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ describe('nx release - private JS packages', () => {
   beforeAll(() => {
     newProject({
       unsetProjectNameAndRootFormat: false,
+      packages: ['@nx/js'],
     });
 
     publicPkg1 = uniq('public-pkg-1');
diff --git a/e2e/release/src/release.test.ts b/e2e/release/src/release.test.ts
index ab85a180d4..75ce07fff4 100644
--- a/e2e/release/src/release.test.ts
+++ b/e2e/release/src/release.test.ts
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ describe('nx release', () => {
   beforeAll(() => {
     newProject({
       unsetProjectNameAndRootFormat: false,
+      packages: ['@nx/js'],
     });
 
     pkg1 = uniq('my-pkg-1');
@@ -111,11 +112,26 @@ describe('nx release', () => {
     ).toEqual(3);
 
     // Only one dependency relationship exists, so this log should only match once
-    expect(
-      versionOutput.match(
-        /Applying new version 999.9.9 to 1 package which depends on my-pkg-\d*/g
-      ).length
-    ).toEqual(1);
+    const dependencyRelationshipLogMatch = versionOutput.match(
+      /Applying new version 999.9.9 to 1 package which depends on my-pkg-\d*/g
+    );
+    if (
+      !dependencyRelationshipLogMatch ||
+      dependencyRelationshipLogMatch.length !== 1
+    ) {
+      // From JamesHenry: explicit error to assist troubleshooting NXC-143
+      throw new Error(
+        `
+Error: Expected to find exactly one dependency relationship log line.
+
+If you are seeing this message then you have been impacted by some currently undiagnosed flakiness in the test.
+
+Please report the full nx release version command output below to the Nx team:
+
+${versionOutput}`
+      );
+    }
+    expect(dependencyRelationshipLogMatch.length).toEqual(1);
 
     // Generate a changelog for the new version
     expect(exists('CHANGELOG.md')).toEqual(false);