diff --git a/lib/load-paths-handler.js b/lib/load-paths-handler.js
index 0f8acadf..eb09ec54 100644
--- a/lib/load-paths-handler.js
+++ b/lib/load-paths-handler.js
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ const path = require('path')
 const {GitRepository} = require('atom')
 const {Minimatch} = require('minimatch')
 
+const childProcess = require('child_process')
+
 const PathsChunkSize = 100
 
 const emittedPaths = new Set()
@@ -27,6 +29,12 @@ class PathLoader {
   }
 
   load (done) {
+    if (this.repo && !this.traverseSymlinkDirectories) {
+      this.loadFromGit().then(done)
+
+      return
+    }
+
     this.loadPath(this.rootPath, true, () => {
       this.flushPaths()
       if (this.repo != null) this.repo.destroy()
@@ -34,6 +42,33 @@ class PathLoader {
     })
   }
 
+  async loadFromGit () {
+    return new Promise((resolve) => {
+      const args = ['ls-files', '--cached', '--exclude-standard', '--others', '-z']
+
+      for (let ignoredName of this.ignoredNames) {
+        args.push('--exclude', ignoredName.pattern)
+      }
+
+      let output = ''
+
+      // TODO: do this via a call to GitRepository (needs to be implemented).
+      const result = childProcess.spawn('git', args, {cwd: this.rootPath})
+      result.stdout.on('data', chunk => {
+        const files = (output + chunk).split('\0')
+        output = files.pop()
+
+        for (const file of files) {
+          this.pathLoaded(file)
+        }
+      })
+      result.on('close', () => {
+        this.flushPaths()
+        resolve()
+      })
+    })
+  }
+
   isIgnored (loadedPath) {
     const relativePath = path.relative(this.rootPath, loadedPath)
     if (this.repo && this.repo.isPathIgnored(relativePath)) {
@@ -54,7 +89,8 @@ class PathLoader {
     if (this.paths.length === PathsChunkSize) {
       this.flushPaths()
     }
-    done()
+
+    done && done()
   }
 
   flushPaths () {