diff --git a/app/modules/prover/index.ts b/app/modules/prover/index.ts
index 01b4bc719e8e94bec686f4b902c86d540b5dc71b..d4b138265bf301c2e08b5bca2e39c3670e73261f 100644
--- a/app/modules/prover/index.ts
+++ b/app/modules/prover/index.ts
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@ export const ProverDependency = {
         }
         if (conf.nbCores === null || conf.nbCores === undefined) {
           conf.nbCores = Math.min(Constants.CORES_MAXIMUM_USE_IN_PARALLEL, require('os').cpus().length)
+        } else if (conf.nbCores <= 0) {
+          conf.nbCores = 1
         }
         if (conf.prefix === null || conf.prefix === undefined) {
           conf.prefix = Constants.DEFAULT_PEER_ID;