diff --git a/.github/workflows/clang-format.yml b/.github/workflows/clang-format.yml
index f920f3a50..58f7ae35e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/clang-format.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/clang-format.yml
@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ jobs:
     env:
       CLANG_VERSION: 18
     steps:
+      # For jobs running in containers, $GITHUB_WORKSPACE and ${{ github.workspace }} might not be the
+      # same directory. The actions/checkout step is *supposed* to checkout into $GITHUB_WORKSPACE and
+      # then add it to safe.directory (see instructions at https://github.com/actions/checkout)
+      # but that's apparently not happening for some container images. We can't be sure what is actually
+      # happening, so let's pre-emptively add both directories to safe.directory. There's a
+      # Github issue opened in 2022 and not resolved in 2025 https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/2058 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
+    - run: |
+        git config --global --add safe.directory $GITHUB_WORKSPACE
+        git config --global --add safe.directory ${{ github.workspace }}
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
     - name: Install clang-format
       run: |