diff --git a/app/services/projects/detect_repository_languages_service.rb b/app/services/projects/detect_repository_languages_service.rb
index d3680637217705fcc1546b5081780f27d8f7d2f5..811bdfa116e5db73f14d9b51b4a7dd1cbb3baaa4 100644
--- a/app/services/projects/detect_repository_languages_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/projects/detect_repository_languages_service.rb
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ class DetectRepositoryLanguagesService < BaseService
     def execute
       repository_languages = project.repository_languages
       detection = Gitlab::LanguageDetection.new(repository, repository_languages)
+      return unless dectection.detect!
 
       matching_programming_languages = ensure_programming_languages(detection)
 
diff --git a/app/workers/detect_repository_languages_worker.rb b/app/workers/detect_repository_languages_worker.rb
index 954d0f9336bd827165d019f0b38797d887a1e28c..71ee3ab2a39d740b97ae255e06b19e5de28bec72 100644
--- a/app/workers/detect_repository_languages_worker.rb
+++ b/app/workers/detect_repository_languages_worker.rb
@@ -12,16 +12,14 @@ class DetectRepositoryLanguagesWorker
 
   attr_reader :project
 
-  # rubocop: disable CodeReuse/ActiveRecord
   def perform(project_id, user_id = nil)
-    @project = Project.find_by(id: project_id)
+    @project = Project.find_by_id(project_id)
     return unless project
 
     try_obtain_lease do
       ::Projects::DetectRepositoryLanguagesService.new(project).execute
     end
   end
-  # rubocop: enable CodeReuse/ActiveRecord
 
   private
 
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/git/repository.rb b/lib/gitlab/git/repository.rb
index 4971a18e270800c3e022365d0b4e3b49e083773c..9ac0f6e70f216561a919ce350d30250c6a6863f1 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/git/repository.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/git/repository.rb
@@ -727,7 +727,7 @@ def attributes_at(ref)
         AttributesAtRefParser.new(self, ref)
       end
 
-      def languages(ref = nil)
+      def languages(ref)
         wrapped_gitaly_errors do
           gitaly_commit_client.languages(ref)
         end
diff --git a/lib/gitlab/language_detection.rb b/lib/gitlab/language_detection.rb
index 7600e60b904e5dac6c6486177b79ee4746021b5e..b939cfd9430a25db673f39a3de917872005cbe36 100644
--- a/lib/gitlab/language_detection.rb
+++ b/lib/gitlab/language_detection.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@ def initialize(repository, repository_languages)
       @repository_languages = repository_languages
     end
 
+    # Gitaly will raise a FailedPrecondition if the language detection is fresh enough it's not worth the effort to
+    # detect again.
+    def detect!
+      detection
+      true
+    rescue GRPC::FailedPrecondition
+      false
+    end
+
     def languages
       detection.keys
     end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/git/repository_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/git/repository_spec.rb
index 20a74af7a45a8d0b419653599267963b387e6301..40c524a8d924c090126d7e8efa271f1e5c859420 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/git/repository_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/git/repository_spec.rb
@@ -1503,7 +1503,7 @@ def commit_files(commit)
     end
 
     it "uses the repository's HEAD when no ref is passed" do
-      lang = repository.languages.first
+      lang = repository.languages('HEAD').first
 
       expect(lang[:label]).to eq('Ruby')
     end
diff --git a/spec/lib/gitlab/language_detection_spec.rb b/spec/lib/gitlab/language_detection_spec.rb
index f558ce0d527bdbc1c3f2727687c26bd98c847c30..afdb24f330187a7e22ac482bb43cdda36b687cc9 100644
--- a/spec/lib/gitlab/language_detection_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/lib/gitlab/language_detection_spec.rb
@@ -25,6 +25,24 @@
     allow(repository).to receive(:languages).and_return(detection)
   end
 
+  describe '#detect!' do
+    context 'when Gitaly returns results' do
+      it 'returns true' do
+        expect(subject.detect!).to eq(true)
+      end
+    end
+
+    context 'when Gitaly raises a FailedPrecondition' do
+      before do
+        allow(repository).to receive(:languages).and_raise(GRPC::FailedPrecondition)
+      end
+
+      it 'returns false' do
+        expect(subject.detect!).to eq(false)
+      end
+    end
+  end
+
   describe '#languages' do
     it 'returns the language names' do
       expect(subject.languages).to eq(%w[Ruby JavaScript Elixir CoffeeScript Go])