diff --git a/nvimrc b/nvimrc
index 3e9db48..0f2b985 100644
--- a/nvimrc
+++ b/nvimrc
@@ -491,14 +491,26 @@ packadd! vim-wordmotion    " https://github.com/chaoren/vim-wordmotion.git
 
 " formatter.nvim
 packadd! formatter.nvim    " https://github.com/mhartington/formatter.nvim.git
+
 lua <<EOF
+-- return prettier configuration. If a frontend/ path exists in project root,
+-- assume node_modules will be found there.
 local prettier = function()
+  local root_path = vim.fn.getcwd()
+  local frontend_path = root_path .. "/frontend"
+  local is_frontend = vim.fn.isdirectory(frontend_path) ~= 0
+  local base_path = root_path
+  if is_frontend then
+    base_path = frontend_path
+  end
+
   return {
-    exe = "prettier",
+    exe = base_path .. "/node_modules/.bin/prettier",
     args = {"--stdin-filepath", vim.api.nvim_buf_get_name(0), '--single-quote'},
     stdin = true
   }
 end
+
 require('formatter').setup({
   filetype = {
     javascript = { prettier },