diff --git a/base/src/com/google/idea/blaze/base/command/mod/BlazeModRunnerImpl.java b/base/src/com/google/idea/blaze/base/command/mod/BlazeModRunnerImpl.java
index 356e1ef69f8..d0dc59481ab 100644
--- a/base/src/com/google/idea/blaze/base/command/mod/BlazeModRunnerImpl.java
+++ b/base/src/com/google/idea/blaze/base/command/mod/BlazeModRunnerImpl.java
@@ -42,13 +42,6 @@ public class BlazeModRunnerImpl extends BlazeModRunner {
   private static final String DEPS = "deps";
   private static final String ROOT_WORKSPACE = "";
 
-
-  /**
-   * For some reason, dump_repo_mapping reqiures "", while deps requires "<root>".
-   * Probably a bazel bug
-   */
-  private static final String ROOT_WORKSPACE_EXPLICIT = "<root>";
-
   /**
    * {@code bazel mod dump_repo_mapping} takes a canonical repository name and will dump a map from
    * repoName -> canonicalName of all the external repositories available to that repository The
@@ -98,9 +91,12 @@ public ListenableFuture<String> getDeps(
             BuildSystemName buildSystemName,
             List<String> flags) {
 
+        // TODO: when 8.0.0 is released add this only if it's disabled explicitly for the repo
+        flags.add("--noenable_workspace");
+
         return Futures.transform(
                 runBlazeModGetBytes(
-                        project, invoker, context, ImmutableList.of(DEPS, ROOT_WORKSPACE_EXPLICIT, "--output=json"), flags),
+                        project, invoker, context, ImmutableList.of(DEPS, ROOT_WORKSPACE, "--output=json"), flags),
                 bytes -> new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8),
                 BlazeExecutor.getInstance().getExecutor()
         );