diff --git a/ghcide/exe/Main.hs b/ghcide/exe/Main.hs
index 8385a3d179..c743231255 100644
--- a/ghcide/exe/Main.hs
+++ b/ghcide/exe/Main.hs
@@ -50,9 +50,8 @@ main = withTelemetryLogger $ \telemetryLogger -> do
     if argsVersion then ghcideVersion >>= putStrLn >> exitSuccess
     else hPutStrLn stderr {- see WARNING above -} =<< ghcideVersion
 
-    -- getHieDbLoc takes a directory path (the project root) and hashes it to find the location of the hiedb
-    -- when running commands directly from GHCIDE we need to provide the ABSOLUTE path to the project root (that's what HLS uses)
-    argsCwd <-case argsCwd of
+    -- if user uses --cwd option we need to make this path absolute (and set the current directory to it)
+    argsCwd <- case argsCwd of
       Nothing   -> IO.getCurrentDirectory
       Just root -> IO.setCurrentDirectory root >> IO.getCurrentDirectory
 
diff --git a/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs b/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
index 3c381bcc72..7d89e3a909 100644
--- a/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
+++ b/ghcide/src/Development/IDE/Main.hs
@@ -319,7 +319,7 @@ defaultMain Arguments{..} = flip withHeapStats fun =<< argsLogger
                     hieChan
             dumpSTMStats
         Check argFiles -> do
-          dir <- IO.getCurrentDirectory
+          dir <- maybe IO.getCurrentDirectory return argsProjectRoot
           dbLoc <- getHieDbLoc dir
           runWithDb logger dbLoc $ \hiedb hieChan -> do
             -- GHC produces messages with UTF8 in them, so make sure the terminal doesn't error