diff --git a/.changes/cta-vite-esbuild-install-direct.md b/.changes/cta-vite-esbuild-install-direct.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..01c9dd5923a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/cta-vite-esbuild-install-direct.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"create-tauri-app": patch
+---
+
+Work around bugs between esbuild and npm by installing directly at the end of the sequence. Also default to using the latest on all of the installs instead of npx's cache.
diff --git a/.github/workflows/test-cta.yml b/.github/workflows/test-cta.yml
index e68e5ebfb21..dba7a5cabab 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test-cta.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test-cta.yml
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ on:
     inputs:
       branch:
         default: "dev"
+      platform:
+        default: "ubuntu"
   pull_request:
     paths:
       - "tooling/create-tauri-app/**"
@@ -19,7 +21,7 @@ env:
 jobs:
   create-recipe-with-npm:
     name: "node@${{ matrix.node }} + npm@${{ matrix.manager }}: ${{ matrix.recipe }}"
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch || 'ubuntu' }}-latest
 
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -45,9 +47,18 @@ jobs:
           npm-version: ${{ matrix.manager }}
           yarn-version: 1.22.5
       - name: install webkit2gtk
+        if: (github.event.inputs.branch || 'ubuntu') == 'ubuntu'
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
           sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libgtksourceview-3.0-dev webkit2gtk-4.0 libappindicator3-dev
+      - run: yarn
+        working-directory: tooling/cli.js
+      - run: yarn build
+        working-directory: tooling/cli.js
+      - run: yarn
+        working-directory: tooling/api
+      - run: yarn build
+        working-directory: tooling/api
       - run: yarn
         working-directory: tooling/create-tauri-app
       - run: yarn build
@@ -60,7 +71,7 @@ jobs:
 
   create-recipe-with-yarn:
     name: "node@${{ matrix.node }} + yarn@1: ${{ matrix.recipe }}"
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ${{ github.event.inputs.branch || 'ubuntu' }}-latest
 
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -81,6 +92,7 @@ jobs:
           node-version: ${{ matrix.node }}
           yarn-version: 1.22.5
       - name: install webkit2gtk
+        if: (github.event.inputs.branch || 'ubuntu') == 'ubuntu'
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
           sudo apt-get install -y libgtk-3-dev libgtksourceview-3.0-dev webkit2gtk-4.0 libappindicator3-dev
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
index 8bbf38dbefc..f4d789bed4d 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import minimist from 'minimist'
 import inquirer from 'inquirer'
 import { bold, cyan, green, reset, yellow } from 'chalk'
 import { platform } from 'os'
-import { resolve, join } from 'path'
+import { resolve, join, relative } from 'path'
 import { cra } from './recipes/react'
 import { vuecli } from './recipes/vue-cli'
 import { vanillajs } from './recipes/vanilla'
@@ -323,26 +323,19 @@ const runInit = async (argv: Argv): Promise<void> => {
     }
   }, [])
 
+  const tauriCLIVersion = !argv.dev
+    ? 'latest'
+    : `file:${relative(appDirectory, join(__dirname, '../../cli.js'))}`
+
   // Vue CLI plugin automatically runs these
   if (recipe.shortName !== 'vuecli') {
     logStep('Installing any additional needed dependencies')
-    if (argv.dev) {
-      await shell(packageManager, ['link', '@tauri-apps/cli'], {
-        cwd: appDirectory
-      })
-      await shell(packageManager, ['link', '@tauri-apps/api'], {
-        cwd: appDirectory
-      })
-    }
-
     await install({
       appDir: appDirectory,
       dependencies: recipe.extraNpmDependencies,
-      devDependencies: argv.dev
-        ? [...recipe.extraNpmDevDependencies]
-        : [argv.dev ? '@tauri-apps/cli' : ''].concat(
-            recipe.extraNpmDevDependencies
-          ),
+      devDependencies: [`@tauri-apps/cli@${tauriCLIVersion}`].concat(
+        recipe.extraNpmDevDependencies
+      ),
       packageManager
     })
 
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
index 8d222f48bb8..9c80da8591c 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ export const cra: Recipe = {
       await shell(
         'npx',
         [
-          'create-react-app',
+          'create-react-app@latest',
           ...(template === 'cra.ts' ? ['--template', 'typescript'] : []),
           `${cfg.appName}`,
           '--use-npm'
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vite.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vite.ts
index 2cb139ca135..c7d60d81748 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vite.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vite.ts
@@ -88,23 +88,34 @@ const vite: Recipe = {
           cwd
         }
       )
-      await shell('yarn', ['install'], { cwd })
     } else {
       await shell(
         'npx',
-        ['@vitejs/create-app', `${cfg.appName}`, '--template', `${template}`],
+        [
+          '@vitejs/create-app@latest',
+          `${cfg.appName}`,
+          '--template',
+          `${template}`
+        ],
         {
           cwd
         }
       )
-      await shell('npm', ['install'], { cwd })
     }
 
     await afterViteCA(cwd, cfg.appName, template)
   },
-  postInit: async ({ packageManager }) => {
+  postInit: async ({ cwd, packageManager }) => {
+    // we don't have a consistent way to rebuild and
+    // esbuild has hit all the bugs and struggles to install on the postinstall
+    await shell('node', ['./node_modules/esbuild/install.js'], { cwd })
+    if (packageManager === 'yarn') {
+      await shell('yarn', ['build'], { cwd })
+    } else {
+      await shell('npm', ['run', 'build'], { cwd })
+    }
     console.log(`
-    Your installation completed.
+    Your installation completed. Change directories to \`${cwd}\`.
     To start, run ${packageManager === 'yarn' ? 'yarn' : 'npm run'} tauri ${
       packageManager === 'npm' ? '--' : ''
     } dev
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vue-cli.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vue-cli.ts
index cb6e581d80e..a91cc9d2d51 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vue-cli.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/vue-cli.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ const vuecli: Recipe = {
     await shell(
       'npx',
       [
-        '@vue/cli',
+        '@vue/cli@latest',
         'create',
         `${cfg.appName}`,
         '--packageManager',
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/test/index.spec.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/test/index.spec.ts
index be4a3d1ffbe..909662955e6 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/test/index.spec.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/test/index.spec.ts
@@ -20,45 +20,10 @@ const timeoutLong = 900000
 const timeoutLittleLonger = 930000
 const logOut = false ? 'inherit' : 'pipe'
 
-beforeAll(async () => {
-  const installCLI = await execa('yarn', [], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: clijs,
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-
-  const buildCLI = await execa('yarn', ['build-release'], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: clijs,
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-
-  const linkCLI = await execa('yarn', ['link'], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: clijs,
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-
-  const installAPI = await execa('yarn', [], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: api,
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-
-  const buildAPI = await execa('yarn', ['build'], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: api,
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-
-  const linkAPI = await execa('yarn', ['link'], {
-    stdio: logOut,
-    cwd: path.join(api, 'dist'),
-    timeout: timeoutLong
-  })
-}, timeoutLittleLonger)
-
 describe('CTA', () => {
+  console.warn(
+    'NOTE: You need to have installed and built cli.js and api before running the tests.'
+  )
   describe.each(recipes.map((recipe) => [recipe, 'tauri-app']))(
     `%s recipe`,
     (recipe: string, appName: string) => {