diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index 68b7120..cc3d9c5 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -159,6 +159,7 @@
       colors = ./home/modules/colors.nix;
       direnv-auto-prune = ./home/modules/programs/direnv/auto-prune.nix;
       downloads-sorter = ./home/modules/services/downloads-sorter.nix;
+      git-maintenance-repo-detector = ./home/modules/programs/git/maintenance-repo-detector.nix;
       gpg = ./home/modules/programs/gpg;
       mpd-auto-updater = ./home/modules/services/mpd.nix;
       neovim-auto-clean-swapfiles = ./home/modules/programs/neovim/auto-clean-swapfiles.nix;
diff --git a/home/modules/programs/git/maintenance-repo-detector.nix b/home/modules/programs/git/maintenance-repo-detector.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92f0a94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/home/modules/programs/git/maintenance-repo-detector.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+{ config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
+let
+  cfg = config.programs.git.maintenance.repository-detector;
+in
+{
+  options.programs.git.maintenance.repository-detector = {
+    enable = lib.mkEnableOption "automatic detection of git repositories to run maintenace tasks on";
+
+    directories = lib.mkOption {
+      type = lib.types.listOf lib.types.path;
+      default = [ ];
+      example = lib.literalExpression ''
+        [
+          "''${config.home.homeDirectory}/Projects"
+        ]
+      '';
+      description = "Directories to search for git repositories to run maintenance tasks on.";
+    };
+  };
+
+  config = lib.mkIf cfg.enable {
+    assertions = [
+      {
+        assertion = config.programs.git.maintenance.enable;
+        message = "programs.git.maintenance.repository-detector.enable requires programs.git.maintenance.enable to work";
+      }
+      # TODO: merge the predefined repositories with the ones discovered by the repository detector.
+      {
+        assertion = config.programs.git.maintenance.repositories == [ ];
+        message = "programs.git.maintenance.repository-detector.enable will override any manually configured repositories";
+      }
+    ];
+
+    systemd.user.services."git-maintenance@".Service = {
+      RuntimeDirectory = "git-maintenance@%i";
+
+      ExecStartPre = let
+        script = pkgs.writeShellApplication {
+          name = "discover-git-maintenance-repos";
+          runtimeInputs = [ config.programs.git.package pkgs.coreutils ];
+          text = ''
+            echo "[maintenance]" > "$1"
+
+            shopt -s nullglob
+            for repoLocation in ${lib.escapeShellArgs cfg.directories}; do
+              for repo in "$repoLocation"/*/.git; do
+                if [ -f "$repo/config" ] && [ "$(git config get -f "$repo/config" maintenance.skip)" == true ]; then
+                  echo "Skipping $repo because maintenance.skip is set to true" >&2
+                else
+                  echo "Found git repository at $repo" >&2
+                  echo "repo = $(realpath "''${repo%"/.git"}")" >> "$1"
+                fi
+              done
+            done
+          '';
+        };
+      in "${lib.getExe script} '%t/git-maintenance@%i/repos.conf'";
+
+      ExecStart = lib.mkForce ''
+        "${lib.getExe config.programs.git.package}" -c include.path="%t/git-maintenance@%i/repos.conf" for-each-repo --keep-going --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=%i
+      '';
+    };
+  };
+}
diff --git a/home/programs/git/default.nix b/home/programs/git/default.nix
index 7bd8e7d..4c78b50 100644
--- a/home/programs/git/default.nix
+++ b/home/programs/git/default.nix
@@ -24,7 +24,17 @@ lib.mkIf cfg.enable {
         signByDefault = true;
       };
 
-      maintenance.enable = true;
+      maintenance = {
+        enable = true;
+        repository-detector = {
+          enable = true;
+          directories = [
+            "${config.home.homeDirectory}/git"
+            "${config.home.homeDirectory}/work"
+            "${config.home.homeDirectory}/pvv"
+           ];
+        };
+      };
 
       lfs.enable = true;
 
@@ -288,37 +298,6 @@ lib.mkIf cfg.enable {
     })
   ];
 
-  systemd.user.services."git-maintenance@".Service = lib.mkIf cfg.maintenance.enable {
-    ExecStartPre = let
-      repoDirs = lib.escapeShellArgs [
-        "${config.home.homeDirectory}/git"
-        "${config.home.homeDirectory}/work"
-        "${config.home.homeDirectory}/pvv"
-      ];
-
-      script = pkgs.writeShellApplication {
-        name = "discover-git-maintenance-repos";
-        text = ''
-          {
-            echo "[maintenance]"
-            for repoLocation in ${repoDirs}; do
-              for repo in "$repoLocation"/*/.git; do
-                if [ "$(git config get -f "$repo/config" maintenance.skip)" != true ]; then
-                  echo "repo = $('${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/realpath' "''${repo%"/.git"}")"
-                fi
-              done
-            done
-          } > "$1"
-        '';
-      };
-    in "${lib.getExe script} %t/maintenance-repos";
-
-    ExecStart = lib.mkForce ''
-      "${lib.getExe cfg.package}" -c include.path="%t/maintenance-repos" for-each-repo --keep-going --config=maintenance.repo maintenance run --schedule=%i
-    '';
-  };
-
-
   home.packages = [
     (pkgs.writeShellApplication {
       name = "git-tcommit";