diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a3a2972..20f0134 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -320,6 +320,7 @@ return {
     path = "~/projects",
     ---@type string[] plugins that match these patterns will use your local versions instead of being fetched from GitHub
     patterns = {}, -- For example {"folke"}
+    fallback = false, -- Fallback to git when local plugin doesn't exist
   },
   install = {
     -- install missing plugins on startup. This doesn't increase startup time.
diff --git a/lua/lazy/core/config.lua b/lua/lazy/core/config.lua
index dd1bdae..e0b50f0 100644
--- a/lua/lazy/core/config.lua
+++ b/lua/lazy/core/config.lua
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ M.defaults = {
     path = "~/projects",
     ---@type string[] plugins that match these patterns will use your local versions instead of being fetched from GitHub
     patterns = {}, -- For example {"folke"}
+    fallback = false, -- Fallback to git when local plugin doesn't exist
   },
   install = {
     -- install missing plugins on startup. This doesn't increase startup time.
diff --git a/lua/lazy/core/plugin.lua b/lua/lazy/core/plugin.lua
index 4873249..b79cc6b 100644
--- a/lua/lazy/core/plugin.lua
+++ b/lua/lazy/core/plugin.lua
@@ -91,7 +91,10 @@ function Spec:add(plugin, results, is_dep)
       end
     end
     -- dev plugins
-    if plugin.dev then
+    if
+      plugin.dev
+      and (not Config.options.dev.fallback or vim.fn.isdirectory(Config.options.dev.path .. "/" .. plugin.name) == 1)
+    then
       plugin.dir = Config.options.dev.path .. "/" .. plugin.name
     else
       -- remote plugin