diff --git a/utils/general.py b/utils/general.py
index 6c2558db74c4..daef2a427111 100755
--- a/utils/general.py
+++ b/utils/general.py
@@ -275,6 +275,7 @@ def check_online():
 def git_describe(path=ROOT):  # path must be a directory
     # Return human-readable git description, i.e. v5.0-5-g3e25f1e https://git-scm.com/docs/git-describe
     try:
+        assert (Path(path) / '.git').is_dir()
         return check_output(f'git -C {path} describe --tags --long --always', shell=True).decode()[:-1]
     except Exception:
         return ''