diff --git a/builtin/apply.c b/builtin/apply.c
index 861a01910c..d623c52f78 100644
--- a/builtin/apply.c
+++ b/builtin/apply.c
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
 #include "repository.h"
+#include "hash.h"
 #include "apply.h"
 
 static const char * const apply_usage[] = {
@@ -18,6 +19,15 @@ int cmd_apply(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	if (init_apply_state(&state, the_repository, prefix))
 		exit(128);
 
+	/*
+	 * We could to redo the "apply.c" machinery to make this
+	 * arbitrary fallback unnecessary, but it is dubious that it
+	 * is worth the effort.
+	 * cf. https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqcypfcmn4.fsf@gitster.g/
+	 */
+	if (!the_hash_algo)
+		repo_set_hash_algo(the_repository, GIT_HASH_SHA1);
+
 	argc = apply_parse_options(argc, argv,
 				   &state, &force_apply, &options,
 				   apply_usage);
diff --git a/builtin/hash-object.c b/builtin/hash-object.c
index 82ca6d2bfd..c767414a0c 100644
--- a/builtin/hash-object.c
+++ b/builtin/hash-object.c
@@ -123,6 +123,9 @@ int cmd_hash_object(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	else
 		prefix = setup_git_directory_gently(&nongit);
 
+	if (nongit && !the_hash_algo)
+		repo_set_hash_algo(the_repository, GIT_HASH_SHA1);
+
 	if (vpath && prefix) {
 		vpath_free = prefix_filename(prefix, vpath);
 		vpath = vpath_free;
diff --git a/builtin/patch-id.c b/builtin/patch-id.c
index 3894d2b970..583099cacf 100644
--- a/builtin/patch-id.c
+++ b/builtin/patch-id.c
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 #include "hash.h"
 #include "hex.h"
 #include "parse-options.h"
+#include "setup.h"
 
 static void flush_current_id(int patchlen, struct object_id *id, struct object_id *result)
 {
@@ -237,6 +238,18 @@ int cmd_patch_id(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	argc = parse_options(argc, argv, prefix, builtin_patch_id_options,
 			     patch_id_usage, 0);
 
+	/*
+	 * We rely on `the_hash_algo` to compute patch IDs. This is dubious as
+	 * it means that the hash algorithm now depends on the object hash of
+	 * the repository, even though git-patch-id(1) clearly defines that
+	 * patch IDs always use SHA1.
+	 *
+	 * NEEDSWORK: This hack should be removed in favor of converting
+	 * the code that computes patch IDs to always use SHA1.
+	 */
+	if (!the_hash_algo)
+		repo_set_hash_algo(the_repository, GIT_HASH_SHA1);
+
 	generate_id_list(opts ? opts > 1 : config.stable,
 			 opts ? opts == 3 : config.verbatim);
 	return 0;
diff --git a/repository.c b/repository.c
index 9f3014b3b5..deb68625e0 100644
--- a/repository.c
+++ b/repository.c
@@ -20,6 +20,28 @@
 static struct repository the_repo;
 struct repository *the_repository = &the_repo;
 
+/*
+ * An escape hatch: if we hit a bug in the production code that fails
+ * to set an appropriate hash algorithm (most likely to happen when
+ * running outside a repository), we can tell the user who reported
+ * the crash to set the environment variable to "sha1" (all lowercase)
+ * to revert to the historical behaviour of defaulting to SHA-1.
+ */
+static void set_default_hash_algo(struct repository *repo)
+{
+	const char *hash_name;
+	int algo;
+
+	hash_name = getenv("GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_HASH_ALGO");
+	if (!hash_name)
+		return;
+	algo = hash_algo_by_name(hash_name);
+	if (algo == GIT_HASH_UNKNOWN)
+		return;
+
+	repo_set_hash_algo(repo, algo);
+}
+
 void initialize_repository(struct repository *repo)
 {
 	repo->objects = raw_object_store_new();
@@ -27,6 +49,28 @@ void initialize_repository(struct repository *repo)
 	repo->parsed_objects = parsed_object_pool_new();
 	ALLOC_ARRAY(repo->index, 1);
 	index_state_init(repo->index, repo);
+
+	/*
+	 * When a command runs inside a repository, it learns what
+	 * hash algorithm is in use from the repository, but some
+	 * commands are designed to work outside a repository, yet
+	 * they want to access the_hash_algo, if only for the length
+	 * of the hashed value to see if their input looks like a
+	 * plausible hash value.
+	 *
+	 * We are in the process of identifying such code paths and
+	 * giving them an appropriate default individually; any
+	 * unconverted code paths that try to access the_hash_algo
+	 * will thus fail.  The end-users however have an escape hatch
+	 * to set GIT_TEST_DEFAULT_HASH_ALGO environment variable to
+	 * "sha1" to get back the old behaviour of defaulting to SHA-1.
+	 *
+	 * This escape hatch is deliberately kept unadvertised, so
+	 * that they see crashes and we can get a report before
+	 * telling them about it.
+	 */
+	if (repo == the_repository)
+		set_default_hash_algo(repo);
 }
 
 static void expand_base_dir(char **out, const char *in,
diff --git a/t/t1007-hash-object.sh b/t/t1007-hash-object.sh
index 64aea38486..d73a5cc237 100755
--- a/t/t1007-hash-object.sh
+++ b/t/t1007-hash-object.sh
@@ -260,4 +260,10 @@ test_expect_success '--literally with extra-long type' '
 	echo example | git hash-object -t $t --literally --stdin
 '
 
+test_expect_success '--stdin outside of repository (uses SHA-1)' '
+	nongit git hash-object --stdin <hello >actual &&
+	echo "$(test_oid --hash=sha1 hello)" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
 test_done
diff --git a/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh b/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..557808ffa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/t1517-outside-repo.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+test_description='check random commands outside repo'
+
+TEST_PASSES_SANITIZE_LEAK=true
+. ./test-lib.sh
+
+test_expect_success 'set up a non-repo directory and test file' '
+	GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES=$(pwd) &&
+	export GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES &&
+	mkdir non-repo &&
+	(
+		cd non-repo &&
+		# confirm that git does not find a repo
+		test_must_fail git rev-parse --git-dir
+	) &&
+	test_write_lines one two three four >nums &&
+	git add nums &&
+	cp nums nums.old &&
+	test_write_lines five >>nums &&
+	git diff >sample.patch
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'compute a patch-id outside repository (uses SHA-1)' '
+	nongit env GIT_DEFAULT_HASH=sha1 \
+		git patch-id <sample.patch >patch-id.expect &&
+	nongit \
+		git patch-id <sample.patch >patch-id.actual &&
+	test_cmp patch-id.expect patch-id.actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'hash-object outside repository (uses SHA-1)' '
+	nongit env GIT_DEFAULT_HASH=sha1 \
+		git hash-object --stdin <sample.patch >hash.expect &&
+	nongit \
+		git hash-object --stdin <sample.patch >hash.actual &&
+	test_cmp hash.expect hash.actual
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'apply a patch outside repository' '
+	(
+		cd non-repo &&
+		cp ../nums.old nums &&
+		git apply ../sample.patch
+	) &&
+	test_cmp nums non-repo/nums
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'grep outside repository' '
+	git grep --cached two >expect &&
+	(
+		cd non-repo &&
+		cp ../nums.old nums &&
+		git grep --no-index two >../actual
+	) &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
+'
+
+test_done
diff --git a/t/t4204-patch-id.sh b/t/t4204-patch-id.sh
index a7fa94ce0a..605faea0c7 100755
--- a/t/t4204-patch-id.sh
+++ b/t/t4204-patch-id.sh
@@ -310,4 +310,38 @@ test_expect_success 'patch-id handles diffs with one line of before/after' '
 	test_config patchid.stable true &&
 	calc_patch_id diffu1stable <diffu1
 '
+
+test_expect_failure 'patch-id computes same ID with different object hashes' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo-sha1 repo-sha256" &&
+
+	cat >diff <<-\EOF &&
+	diff --git a/bar b/bar
+	index bdaf90f..31051f6 100644
+	--- a/bar
+	+++ b/bar
+	@@ -2 +2,2 @@
+	 b
+	+c
+	EOF
+
+	git init --object-format=sha1 repo-sha1 &&
+	git -C repo-sha1 patch-id <diff >patch-id-sha1 &&
+	git init --object-format=sha256 repo-sha256 &&
+	git -C repo-sha256 patch-id <diff >patch-id-sha256 &&
+	test_cmp patch-id-sha1 patch-id-sha256
+'
+
+test_expect_success 'patch-id without repository' '
+	cat >diff <<-\EOF &&
+	diff --git a/bar b/bar
+	index bdaf90f..31051f6 100644
+	--- a/bar
+	+++ b/bar
+	@@ -2 +2,2 @@
+	 b
+	+c
+	EOF
+	nongit git patch-id <diff
+'
+
 test_done