diff --git a/hgweb/command-runner.sh b/hgweb/command-runner.sh
index 56c5fa037..e99342567 100644
--- a/hgweb/command-runner.sh
+++ b/hgweb/command-runner.sh
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ echo ""
 # Run the hg command, simply output to stdout
 first_char=$(echo $project_code | cut -c1)
 # Ensure NFS cache is refreshed in case project repo changed in another pod (e.g., project reset)
-ls /var/hg/repos/$first_char/$project_code > /dev/null  # Don't need output; this is enough to refresh NFS dir cache
+ls /var/hg/repos/$first_char/$project_code >/dev/null 2>/dev/null  # Don't need output; this is enough to refresh NFS dir cache
+# Sometimes invalidatedircache is called after deleting a project, so the cd would fail. So exit fast in that case.
+[ "x$command_name" = "xinvalidatedircache" ] && exit 0
 cd /var/hg/repos/$first_char/$project_code
 case $command_name in
 
@@ -63,10 +65,6 @@ case $command_name in
         timeout 5 chg verify 2>&1
         ;;
 
-    invalidatedircache)
-        # Do nothing; the ls before the case was the whole point of this command
-        ;;
-
     *)
         # Env var PYTHONUNBUFFERED required for commands like verify and recover, so that output can stream back to the project page
         PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 chg $command_name 2>&1