diff --git a/scripts/pgit.sh b/scripts/pgit.sh
index dcd44add..f42378be 100644
--- a/scripts/pgit.sh
+++ b/scripts/pgit.sh
@@ -39,10 +39,14 @@ set_global_variables()
 {
 	[ "$projects_dir" ] || {
 		projects_dir=`pwd`
-		while [ ! -r Makefile ] || ! grep -q some-random-string-to-id-this-makefile Makefile; do
-			[ "$projects_dir" = / ] && fatal "Failed to find projects directory"
-			projects_dir=`dirname $projects_dir`
-		done
+		# If we're in a toplevel directory, suppose projects_dir == project_dirs,
+		# i.e. we only want to target this Git repo
+		if [ ! -d .git ]; then
+			while [ ! -r Makefile ] || ! grep -q some-random-string-to-id-this-makefile Makefile; do
+				[ "$projects_dir" = / ] && fatal "Failed to find projects directory"
+				projects_dir=`dirname $projects_dir`
+			done
+		fi
 	}
 
 	[ "$project_dirs" ] || {