diff --git a/packages/devkit/src/executors/read-target-options.ts b/packages/devkit/src/executors/read-target-options.ts
index bf9758eb477ac0..818c277e632bce 100644
--- a/packages/devkit/src/executors/read-target-options.ts
+++ b/packages/devkit/src/executors/read-target-options.ts
@@ -4,8 +4,12 @@ import type { ExecutorContext } from 'nx/src/config/misc-interfaces';
 import { combineOptionsForExecutor } from 'nx/src/utils/params';
 import { requireNx } from '../../nx';
 
-const { Workspaces, getExecutorInformation, calculateDefaultProjectName } =
-  requireNx();
+const {
+  Workspaces,
+  getExecutorInformation,
+  calculateDefaultProjectName,
+  relativeCwd,
+} = requireNx();
 
 /**
  * Reads and combines options for a given target.
@@ -21,6 +25,7 @@ export function readTargetOptions<T = any>(
   ).projects[project];
   const targetConfiguration = projectConfiguration.targets[target];
 
+  // TODO(v18): remove Workspaces.
   const ws = new Workspaces(context.root);
   const [nodeModule, executorName] = targetConfiguration.executor.split(':');
   const { schema } = getExecutorInformation
@@ -48,6 +53,9 @@ export function readTargetOptions<T = any>(
     targetConfiguration,
     schema,
     defaultProject,
-    ws.relativeCwd(context.cwd)
+    relativeCwd
+      ? relativeCwd(context.cwd, context.root)
+      : // TODO(v18): remove relativeCwd. This is to be backwards compatible with Nx 16.5 and below.
+        (ws as any).relativeCwd(context.cwd)
   ) as T;
 }
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/adapter/angular-json.ts b/packages/nx/src/adapter/angular-json.ts
index 19c88d01a40687..66c5350f6789a7 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/adapter/angular-json.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/adapter/angular-json.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import {
   ProjectsConfigurations,
 } from '../config/workspace-json-project-json';
 import { renamePropertyWithStableKeys } from '../config/workspaces';
-import { workspaceRoot } from '../utils/workspace-root';
 
 export function shouldMergeAngularProjects(
   root: string,
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/command-line/generate/generate.ts b/packages/nx/src/command-line/generate/generate.ts
index 57b4c901f3830f..8737190fb6bb11 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/command-line/generate/generate.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/command-line/generate/generate.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ import { prompt } from 'enquirer';
 
 import { readNxJson } from '../../config/configuration';
 import { ProjectsConfigurations } from '../../config/workspace-json-project-json';
-import { Workspaces } from '../../config/workspaces';
 import { FileChange, flushChanges, FsTree } from '../../generators/tree';
 import {
   createProjectGraphAsync,
@@ -20,6 +19,7 @@ import { getLocalWorkspacePlugins } from '../../utils/plugins/local-plugins';
 import { printHelp } from '../../utils/print-help';
 import { workspaceRoot } from '../../utils/workspace-root';
 import { NxJsonConfiguration } from '../../config/nx-json';
+import { relativeCwd } from '../../config/relative-cwd';
 import { calculateDefaultProjectName } from '../../config/calculate-default-project-name';
 import { findInstalledPlugins } from '../../utils/plugins/installed-plugins';
 import type { Arguments } from 'yargs';
@@ -51,7 +51,6 @@ export function printChanges(fileChanges: FileChange[]) {
 
 async function promptForCollection(
   generatorName: string,
-  ws: Workspaces,
   interactive: boolean,
   projectsConfiguration: ProjectsConfigurations
 ): Promise<string> {
@@ -202,7 +201,6 @@ function parseGeneratorString(value: string): {
 
 async function convertToGenerateOptions(
   generatorOptions: { [p: string]: any },
-  ws: Workspaces,
   defaultCollectionName: string,
   mode: 'generate' | 'new',
   projectsConfiguration?: ProjectsConfigurations
@@ -221,7 +219,6 @@ async function convertToGenerateOptions(
     } else if (!defaultCollectionName) {
       const generatorString = await promptForCollection(
         generatorDescriptor,
-        ws,
         interactive,
         projectsConfiguration
       );
@@ -302,7 +299,6 @@ export async function generate(cwd: string, args: { [k: string]: any }) {
   }
   const verbose = process.env.NX_VERBOSE_LOGGING === 'true';
 
-  const ws = new Workspaces(workspaceRoot);
   const nxJsonConfiguration = readNxJson();
   const projectGraph = await createProjectGraphAsync({ exitOnError: true });
   const projectsConfigurations =
@@ -311,7 +307,6 @@ export async function generate(cwd: string, args: { [k: string]: any }) {
   return handleErrors(verbose, async () => {
     const opts = await convertToGenerateOptions(
       args,
-      ws,
       readDefaultCollection(nxJsonConfiguration),
       'generate',
       projectsConfigurations
@@ -366,7 +361,7 @@ export async function generate(cwd: string, args: { [k: string]: any }) {
         projectsConfigurations,
         nxJsonConfiguration
       ),
-      ws.relativeCwd(cwd),
+      relativeCwd(cwd, workspaceRoot),
       verbose
     );
 
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/command-line/run/run.ts b/packages/nx/src/command-line/run/run.ts
index e6fd53a211b5b5..3acc4370da60c5 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/command-line/run/run.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/command-line/run/run.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import {
   Schema,
 } from '../../utils/params';
 import { printHelp } from '../../utils/print-help';
-import { Workspaces } from '../../config/workspaces';
 import { NxJsonConfiguration } from '../../config/nx-json';
 import { readJsonFile } from '../../utils/fileutils';
 import { buildTargetFromScript, PackageJson } from '../../utils/package-json';
@@ -28,6 +27,7 @@ import {
 } from '../../project-graph/project-graph';
 import { ProjectGraph } from '../../config/project-graph';
 import { readNxJson } from '../../config/configuration';
+import { relativeCwd } from '../../config/relative-cwd';
 import {
   getLastValueFromAsyncIterableIterator,
   isAsyncIterator,
@@ -111,7 +111,6 @@ function createImplicitTargetConfig(
 }
 
 async function parseExecutorAndTarget(
-  ws: Workspaces,
   { project, target, configuration }: Target,
   root: string,
   projectsConfigurations: ProjectsConfigurations,
@@ -147,9 +146,7 @@ async function printTargetRunHelpInternal(
   projectsConfigurations: ProjectsConfigurations,
   nxJsonConfiguration: NxJsonConfiguration
 ) {
-  const ws = new Workspaces(root);
   const { executor, nodeModule, schema } = await parseExecutorAndTarget(
-    ws,
     { project, target, configuration },
     root,
     projectsConfigurations,
@@ -176,10 +173,8 @@ async function runExecutorInternal<T extends { success: boolean }>(
 ): Promise<AsyncIterableIterator<T>> {
   validateProject(projectsConfigurations, project);
 
-  const ws = new Workspaces(root);
   const { executor, implementationFactory, nodeModule, schema, targetConfig } =
     await parseExecutorAndTarget(
-      ws,
       { project, target, configuration },
       root,
       projectsConfigurations,
@@ -193,7 +188,7 @@ async function runExecutorInternal<T extends { success: boolean }>(
     targetConfig,
     schema,
     project,
-    ws.relativeCwd(cwd),
+    relativeCwd(cwd, root),
     isVerbose
   );
 
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/config/relative-cwd.ts b/packages/nx/src/config/relative-cwd.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..a5ecd6d743335c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/nx/src/config/relative-cwd.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import { relative } from 'path';
+
+export function relativeCwd(cwd: string, root: string): string | null {
+  return relative(root, cwd).replace(/\\/g, '/') || null;
+}
diff --git a/packages/nx/src/devkit-internals.ts b/packages/nx/src/devkit-internals.ts
index 0f6bf3e705cae2..be27e5e767d87d 100644
--- a/packages/nx/src/devkit-internals.ts
+++ b/packages/nx/src/devkit-internals.ts
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ export { createTempNpmDirectory } from './utils/package-manager';
 export { getExecutorInformation } from './command-line/run/executor-utils';
 export { readNxJson as readNxJsonFromDisk } from './config/nx-json';
 export { calculateDefaultProjectName } from './config/calculate-default-project-name';
+export { relativeCwd } from './config/relative-cwd';