lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm  | 2 +-
 script/public-inbox-index | 1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm
index 9d48e5ebee4131553e6442e135d7a0d642e55b58..ec80b56562c62d246895057a10ab7f22ef673cd1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Admin.pm
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ 		@ibxs = @$all;
 	} else { # directories specified on the command-line
 		my $i = 0;
 		my @dirs = @$argv;
-		push @dirs, '.' unless @dirs;
+		push @dirs, '.' if !@dirs && $opt->{-use_cwd};
 		foreach (@dirs) {
 			my $v;
 			my $dir = resolve_repo_dir($_, \$v);
diff --git a/script/public-inbox-index b/script/public-inbox-index
index 5909801e7a3ad760fb714b9f5d397f7d0cf47820..8a61817ce7f012401b9c606f3c54ff7519263c8d 100755
--- a/script/public-inbox-index
+++ b/script/public-inbox-index
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ require PublicInbox::Admin;
 PublicInbox::Admin::require_or_die('-index');
 
 my $cfg = PublicInbox::Config->new; # Config is loaded by Admin
+$opt->{-use_cwd} = 1;
 my @ibxs = PublicInbox::Admin::resolve_inboxes(\@ARGV, $opt, $cfg);
 PublicInbox::Admin::require_or_die('-index');
 unless (@ibxs) { print STDERR $help; exit 1 }