diff --git a/command/pr.go b/command/pr.go
index bd7743f46..924059882 100644
--- a/command/pr.go
+++ b/command/pr.go
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ func prStatus(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	repoOverride, _ := cmd.Flags().GetString("repo")
 	currentPRNumber, currentPRHeadRef, err := prSelectorForCurrentBranch(ctx, baseRepo)
 	if err != nil && repoOverride == "" && err.Error() != "git: not on any branch" {
-		return err
+		return fmt.Errorf("could not query for pull request for current branch: %w", err)
 	}
 
 	prPayload, err := api.PullRequests(apiClient, baseRepo, currentPRNumber, currentPRHeadRef, currentUser)
diff --git a/context/context.go b/context/context.go
index 6c3bd5aee..23ce74d85 100644
--- a/context/context.go
+++ b/context/context.go
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ func (c *fsContext) Branch() (string, error) {
 
 	currentBranch, err := git.CurrentBranch()
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("could not determine current branch: %w", err)
 	}
 
 	c.branch = currentBranch
diff --git a/git/git.go b/git/git.go
index 37253462a..cdf1e869f 100644
--- a/git/git.go
+++ b/git/git.go
@@ -21,6 +21,15 @@ func VerifyRef(ref string) bool {
 
 // CurrentBranch reads the checked-out branch for the git repository
 func CurrentBranch() (string, error) {
+	err := utils.PrepareCmd(GitCommand("log")).Run()
+	if err != nil {
+		// this is a hack.
+		errRe := regexp.MustCompile("your current branch '([^']+)' does not have any commits yet")
+		matches := errRe.FindAllStringSubmatch(err.Error(), -1)
+		if len(matches) > 0 && matches[0][1] != "" {
+			return matches[0][1], nil
+		}
+	}
 	// we avoid using `git branch --show-current` for compatibility with git < 2.22
 	branchCmd := exec.Command("git", "rev-parse", "--abbrev-ref", "HEAD")
 	output, err := utils.PrepareCmd(branchCmd).Output()