diff --git a/spec/package-manager-spec.coffee b/spec/package-manager-spec.coffee
index 6a1610a8a..f68005cf5 100644
--- a/spec/package-manager-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/package-manager-spec.coffee
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@ describe "PackageManager", ->
       expect(addErrorHandler.argsForCall[0][0].message).toContain("Failed to load the package-with-broken-package-json package")
       expect(addErrorHandler.argsForCall[0][0].options.packageName).toEqual "package-with-broken-package-json"
 
+    it "returns null if the package name or path starts with a dot", ->
+      expect(atom.packages.loadPackage("/Users/user/.atom/packages/.git")).toBeNull()
+
     it "normalizes short repository urls in package.json", ->
       {metadata} = atom.packages.loadPackage("package-with-short-url-package-json")
       expect(metadata.repository.type).toBe "git"
diff --git a/src/package-manager.coffee b/src/package-manager.coffee
index 0e76a762f..8f2924358 100644
--- a/src/package-manager.coffee
+++ b/src/package-manager.coffee
@@ -367,6 +367,8 @@ class PackageManager
     @emitter.emit 'did-load-initial-packages'
 
   loadPackage: (nameOrPath) ->
+    return null if path.basename(nameOrPath)[0].match /^\./ # primarily to skip .git folder
+
     return pack if pack = @getLoadedPackage(nameOrPath)
 
     if packagePath = @resolvePackagePath(nameOrPath)