diff --git a/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go b/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
index 624e5379dc6554..10cfcfc92b397d 100644
--- a/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
+++ b/components/supervisor/pkg/supervisor/supervisor.go
@@ -1297,6 +1297,18 @@ func startContentInit(ctx context.Context, cfg *Config, wg *sync.WaitGroup, cst
 			break
 		}
 
+		repoRoot := os.Getenv("GITPOD_REPO_ROOT")
+		log.Infof("repo root: %s", repoRoot)
+		if repoRoot != "" {
+			if _, err := os.Stat(repoRoot); !os.IsNotExist(err) {
+				log.Infof("calling chmod: %s", repoRoot)
+				err = os.Chmod(repoRoot, os.FileMode(0755))
+				if err != nil {
+					log.WithError(err).WithField("location", repoRoot).Warn("was not able to set chmod")
+				}
+			}
+		}
+
 		err = nil
 		return
 	}