diff --git a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe/RepoFileFunction.java b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe/RepoFileFunction.java
index cbafb02610079a..e41f2eae14db28 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe/RepoFileFunction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/google/devtools/build/lib/skyframe/RepoFileFunction.java
@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ public SkyValue compute(SkyKey skyKey, Environment env)
       if (repoDirValue == null) {
         return null;
       }
+      if (!repoDirValue.repositoryExists()) {
+        throw new RepoFileFunctionException(
+            new IOException(repoDirValue.getErrorMsg()), Transience.PERSISTENT);
+      }
       repoRoot = repoDirValue.getPath();
     }
     RootedPath repoFilePath =
diff --git a/src/test/shell/bazel/workspace_test.sh b/src/test/shell/bazel/workspace_test.sh
index 220797c069106e..8d27e8847831d5 100755
--- a/src/test/shell/bazel/workspace_test.sh
+++ b/src/test/shell/bazel/workspace_test.sh
@@ -66,6 +66,10 @@ EOF
   assert_contains "bye" bazel-genfiles/external/x/out
 }
 
+function test_build_non_existing_repo() {
+  bazel build @blah &>$TEST_log && fail "Failure expected" || true
+  expect_log "Repository '@@blah' is not defined"
+}
 
 function test_path_with_spaces() {
   ws="a b"