diff --git a/src/commands.rs b/src/commands.rs
index d3b062826..5a7268bde 100644
--- a/src/commands.rs
+++ b/src/commands.rs
@@ -1733,7 +1733,10 @@ fn cmd_init(ui: &mut Ui, command: &CommandHelper, args: &ArgMatches) -> Result<(
     }
 
     if let Some(git_store_str) = args.value_of("git-repo") {
-        let git_store_path = ui.cwd().join(git_store_str);
+        let mut git_store_path = ui.cwd().join(git_store_str);
+        if !git_store_path.ends_with(".git") {
+            git_store_path = git_store_path.join(".git");
+        }
         let (workspace, repo) =
             Workspace::init_external_git(ui.settings(), wc_path.clone(), git_store_path)?;
         let git_repo = repo.store().git_repo().unwrap();
diff --git a/tests/test_init_command.rs b/tests/test_init_command.rs
index 2f781bff0..521fb99f0 100644
--- a/tests/test_init_command.rs
+++ b/tests/test_init_command.rs
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ fn test_init_git_external() {
     let git_target_file_contents = std::fs::read_to_string(store_path.join("git_target")).unwrap();
     assert!(git_target_file_contents
         .replace('\\', "/")
-        .ends_with("/git-repo"));
+        .ends_with("/git-repo/.git"));
 }
 
 #[test]