diff --git a/docs/userguide.rst b/docs/userguide.rst
index 17c9b54..f5cc731 100644
--- a/docs/userguide.rst
+++ b/docs/userguide.rst
@@ -338,6 +338,7 @@ Configuration reference
         If the ``url`` as well as the ``path`` is defined, the path is used to
         overwrite the checkout directory, that defaults to ``kas_work_dir``
         + ``repo.name``.
+        In case of a relative path name ``kas_work_dir`` is prepended.
 
     * ``layers``: dict [optional]
         Contains the layers from this repository that should be added to the
diff --git a/kas/repos.py b/kas/repos.py
index 0d96ab4..519ed6c 100644
--- a/kas/repos.py
+++ b/kas/repos.py
@@ -96,7 +96,12 @@ class Repo:
             url = path
             disable_operations = True
         else:
-            path = path or os.path.join(config.kas_work_dir, name)
+            if path is None:
+                path = os.path.join(config.kas_work_dir, name)
+            else:
+                if not os.path.isabs(path):
+                    # Relative pathes are assumed to start from work_dir
+                    path = os.path.join(config.kas_work_dir, path)
 
         if typ == 'git':
             return GitRepo(url, path, refspec, layers, disable_operations)