diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 534285afa..96665782c 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ func main() {
 	flaggy.DefaultParser.ShowVersionWithVersionFlag = false
 
 	repoPath := ""
-	flaggy.String(&repoPath, "p", "path", "Path of git repo. (Deprecated: use --git-dir for git directory and --work-tree for work tree directory)")
+	flaggy.String(&repoPath, "p", "path", "Path of git repo. (equivalent to --work-tree=<path> --git-dir=<path>/.git/)")
 
 	filterPath := ""
 	flaggy.String(&filterPath, "f", "filter", "Path to filter on in `git log -- <path>`. When in filter mode, the commits, reflog, and stash are filtered based on the given path, and some operations are restricted")
diff --git a/pkg/commands/git.go b/pkg/commands/git.go
index da4324d4d..dcd1729af 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/git.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/git.go
@@ -1427,3 +1427,9 @@ func (c *GitCommand) WorkingTreeState() string {
 	}
 	return "normal"
 }
+
+func (c *GitCommand) IsBareRepo() bool {
+	// note: could use `git rev-parse --is-bare-repository` if we wanna drop go-git
+	_, err := c.Repo.Worktree()
+	return err == gogit.ErrIsBareRepository
+}
diff --git a/pkg/gui/recent_repos_panel.go b/pkg/gui/recent_repos_panel.go
index dba8ac260..6d9e535a3 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/recent_repos_panel.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/recent_repos_panel.go
@@ -45,6 +45,14 @@ func (gui *Gui) handleCreateRecentReposMenu() error {
 // updateRecentRepoList registers the fact that we opened lazygit in this repo,
 // so that we can open the same repo via the 'recent repos' menu
 func (gui *Gui) updateRecentRepoList() error {
+	if gui.GitCommand.IsBareRepo() {
+		// we could totally do this but it would require storing both the git-dir and the
+		// worktree in our recent repos list, which is a change that would need to be
+		// backwards compatible
+		gui.Log.Info("Not appending bare repo to recent repo list")
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	recentRepos := gui.Config.GetAppState().RecentRepos
 	currentRepo, err := os.Getwd()
 	if err != nil {