diff --git a/repo2docker/app.py b/repo2docker/app.py
index 2b417f32..793e4932 100644
--- a/repo2docker/app.py
+++ b/repo2docker/app.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ class Repo2Docker(Application):
     )
 
     repo = Unicode(
-        '.',
+        os.getcwd(),
         allow_none=True,
         config=True,
         help="""