diff --git a/src/cli/serve/serve.js b/src/cli/serve/serve.js
index ed05bcaf38ffb..cc592d53230bc 100644
--- a/src/cli/serve/serve.js
+++ b/src/cli/serve/serve.js
@@ -13,10 +13,12 @@ import { resolve } from 'path';
 import url from 'url';
 
 import { getConfigPath } from '@kbn/utils';
+import { REPO_ROOT } from '@kbn/dev-utils';
 import { IS_KIBANA_DISTRIBUTABLE } from '../../legacy/utils';
-import { fromRoot } from '../../core/server/utils';
 import { readKeystore } from '../keystore/read_keystore';
 
+const fromRoot = (p) => resolve(REPO_ROOT, p);
+
 function canRequire(path) {
   try {
     require.resolve(path);
diff --git a/src/dev/cli_dev_mode/get_server_watch_paths.ts b/src/dev/cli_dev_mode/get_server_watch_paths.ts
index 46aa15659a513..53aa53b5aa63a 100644
--- a/src/dev/cli_dev_mode/get_server_watch_paths.ts
+++ b/src/dev/cli_dev_mode/get_server_watch_paths.ts
@@ -47,15 +47,7 @@ export function getServerWatchPaths({ pluginPaths, pluginScanDirs }: Options) {
         ...pluginScanDirs,
       ].map((path) => Path.resolve(path))
     )
-  );
-
-  for (const watchPath of watchPaths) {
-    if (!Fs.existsSync(fromRoot(watchPath))) {
-      throw new Error(
-        `A watch directory [${watchPath}] does not exist, which will cause chokidar to fail. Either make sure the directory exists or remove it as a watch source in the ClusterManger`
-      );
-    }
-  }
+  ).filter((path) => Fs.existsSync(fromRoot(path)));
 
   const ignorePaths = [
     /[\\\/](\..*|node_modules|bower_components|target|public|__[a-z0-9_]+__|coverage)([\\\/]|$)/,