diff --git a/.projenrc.ts b/.projenrc.ts
index e97149f71..94d2a5120 100644
--- a/.projenrc.ts
+++ b/.projenrc.ts
@@ -72,6 +72,10 @@ const project = new Cdk8sTeamJsiiProject({
 // Used in K8s upgrade tests to control publishing of new branches
 project.package.addField('private', false);
 
+// not using `npmAccess` property because projen omits values that are
+// identical to npm defaults.
+project.package.addField('publishConfig', { access: 'public' });
+
 project.gitignore.exclude('.vscode/');
 
 const importdir = path.join('src', 'imports');
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index be6b4a548..299404444 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -107,6 +107,9 @@
   },
   "main": "lib/index.js",
   "license": "Apache-2.0",
+  "publishConfig": {
+    "access": "public"
+  },
   "version": "0.0.0",
   "jest": {
     "testMatch": [