diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a1ca0eaac2..555e28b22a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 * crash when opening submodule ([#2895](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2895))
 * when staging the last file in a directory, the first item after the directory is no longer skipped [[@Tillerino](https://github.com/Tillerino)] ([#2748](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2748))
 * index-out-of-bounds panic when unstaging lines near the end of a diff ([#2953](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2953))
+* crash after stashing untracked files when the current directory is one of them ([#2651](https://github.com/gitui-org/gitui/issues/2651))
 
 ## [0.28.1] - 2026-03-21
 
diff --git a/asyncgit/src/sync/repository.rs b/asyncgit/src/sync/repository.rs
index c49795fb7c..ab9f77cc39 100644
--- a/asyncgit/src/sync/repository.rs
+++ b/asyncgit/src/sync/repository.rs
@@ -40,6 +40,23 @@ impl RepoPath {
 			Self::Workdir { workdir, .. } => Some(workdir.as_path()),
 		}
 	}
+
+	/// resolve to the absolute repo root so later operations survive
+	/// the deletion of the process cwd (see #2651)
+	pub fn resolve_root(&self) -> Result<Self> {
+		match self {
+			Self::Path(_) => {
+				let repo = repo(self)?;
+				// bare repos have no workdir
+				let root = repo
+					.workdir()
+					.unwrap_or_else(|| repo.path())
+					.to_path_buf();
+				Ok(Self::Path(root))
+			}
+			Self::Workdir { .. } => Ok(self.clone()),
+		}
+	}
 }
 
 impl From<PathBuf> for RepoPath {
diff --git a/asyncgit/src/sync/stash.rs b/asyncgit/src/sync/stash.rs
index 8a65f92feb..125d979903 100644
--- a/asyncgit/src/sync/stash.rs
+++ b/asyncgit/src/sync/stash.rs
@@ -135,7 +135,28 @@ mod tests {
 		},
 		utils::{repo_read_file, repo_write_file},
 	};
-	use std::{fs::File, io::Write, path::Path};
+	use std::{fs, fs::File, io::Write, path::Path};
+
+	#[test]
+	fn test_stash_untracked_removes_stored_repo_path() -> Result<()> {
+		let (_td, repo) = repo_init()?;
+		let root = repo.path().parent().unwrap();
+
+		let sub_dir = root.join("untracked_sub");
+		fs::create_dir(&sub_dir)?;
+		File::create(sub_dir.join("foo.txt"))?.write_all(b"foo")?;
+
+		// gitui stores the startup path and reopens from it on every call, so a
+		// path inside the untracked dir is the same trap as a relative "." there
+		let repo_path = RepoPath::Path(sub_dir).resolve_root()?;
+
+		stash_save(&repo_path, None, true, false)?;
+
+		// stashing deleted that dir, further operations must still work
+		assert_eq!(get_stashes(&repo_path)?.len(), 1);
+
+		Ok(())
+	}
 
 	#[test]
 	fn test_smoke() {
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index fd662950a2..52b462d3c9 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -161,10 +161,12 @@ macro_rules! log_eprintln {
 fn main() -> Result<()> {
 	let app_start = Instant::now();
 
-	let cliargs = process_cmdline()?;
+	let mut cliargs = process_cmdline()?;
 
 	asyncgit::register_tracing_logging();
 	ensure_valid_path(&cliargs.repo_path)?;
+	// pin to the repo root so operations survive deletion of the cwd
+	cliargs.repo_path = cliargs.repo_path.resolve_root()?;
 
 	let key_config = KeyConfig::init(
 		cliargs.key_bindings_path.as_ref(),