diff --git a/playbook.yml b/playbook.yml
index a8d58b4..12c1605 100644
--- a/playbook.yml
+++ b/playbook.yml
@@ -133,15 +133,20 @@
 
       - name: fix permissions for dotfiles directory
         shell: |
-          # There is no sane way to specify the global .gitconfig to use, so we
-          # actually have to override HOME so git looks into ~/.gitconfig
-          export HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
-          set -o pipefail
-          set -o errexit
           cd /var/lib/dotfiles
-          git config --global --add safe.directory /var/lib/dotfiles
-          git ls-tree -z --name-only HEAD | xargs --null chown --changes --recursive dotfiles:dotfiles
-          git ls-tree -z --name-only HEAD | xargs --null chmod --changes --recursive g+wX /var/lib/dotfiles
+          if [[ -e .git ]] ; then
+              # There is no sane way to specify the global .gitconfig to use, so we
+              # actually have to override HOME so git looks into ~/.gitconfig
+              export HOME="$(mktemp -d)"
+              set -o pipefail
+              set -o errexit
+              git config --global --add safe.directory /var/lib/dotfiles
+              git ls-tree -z --name-only HEAD | xargs --null chown --changes --recursive dotfiles:dotfiles
+              git ls-tree -z --name-only HEAD | xargs --null chmod --changes --recursive g+wX
+          else
+              chown --changes --recursive dotfiles:dotfiles .
+              chmod --changes --recursive g+wX .
+          fi
         args:
           executable: /bin/bash
         register: dotfiles_permission_change