diff --git a/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata.go b/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata.go
index 50cec384..377f0107 100644
--- a/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata.go
+++ b/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata.go
@@ -71,7 +71,8 @@ func InferBuildMetadata() BuildMetadata {
 		logger.Panicf("Subprocess `git rev-parse --show-prefix` failed: %v", err)
 	}
 	// remote the trailing newline
-	prefix := strings.TrimSpace(string(prefixBytes))
+	// also prepend a "./" to cope with empty prefixes
+	prefix := "./" + strings.TrimSpace(string(prefixBytes))
 	logger.Debugf("Directory: %s", prefix)
 
 	buildMetadata := BuildMetadata{
diff --git a/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata_test.go b/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata_test.go
index f228eb23..3285364c 100644
--- a/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata_test.go
+++ b/tools/cli-client/internals/trigger/build_metadata_test.go
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ func (s *BuildMetadataSuite) TestGetRockcraftYamlName(c *C) {
 	c.Assert(result, Equals, expected)
 }
 
-func (s *BuildMetadataSuite) TestGetBuildMetadataCustomDirector(c *C) {
+func (s *BuildMetadataSuite) TestGetBuildMetadataCustomDirectory(c *C) {
 	cmd := exec.Command("git", "--version")
 	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
 		c.Fatal("git not installed")
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ func (s *BuildMetadataSuite) TestGetBuildMetadataCustomDirector(c *C) {
 
 	result := trigger.InferBuildMetadata()
 
-	prefix := filepath.Join("mock_rock", "1.0") + "/"
+	prefix := "./" + filepath.Join("mock_rock", "1.0") + "/"
 	head, err := exec.Command("git", "rev-parse", "HEAD").Output()
 	headStr := strings.TrimSpace(string(head))
 	c.Assert(err, IsNil)