diff --git a/src/fidesctl/ctl/core/utils.py b/src/fidesctl/ctl/core/utils.py
index 961691aadd..adff8835b3 100644
--- a/src/fidesctl/ctl/core/utils.py
+++ b/src/fidesctl/ctl/core/utils.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from functools import partial
 from json.decoder import JSONDecodeError
 from typing import Dict, Iterator, List
+from os.path import isfile
 
 import click
 import jwt
@@ -12,7 +13,6 @@
 import sqlalchemy
 from fideslang.models import DatasetField, FidesModel
 from fideslang.validation import FidesValidationError
-from git.repo import Repo
 from sqlalchemy.engine import Engine
 from sqlalchemy.exc import SQLAlchemyError
 
@@ -56,7 +56,9 @@ def get_db_engine(connection_string: str) -> Engine:
     Use SQLAlchemy to create a DB engine.
     """
     try:
-        engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine(connection_string)
+        engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine(
+            connection_string, connect_args={"connect_timeout": 10}
+        )
     except Exception as err:
         raise Exception("Failed to create engine!") from err
 
@@ -82,7 +84,7 @@ def generate_request_headers(user_id: str, api_key: str) -> Dict[str, str]:
     return {
         "Content-Type": "application/json",
         "user-id": str(user_id),
-        "Authorization": "Bearer {}".format(jwt_encode(1, api_key)),
+        "Authorization": f"Bearer {jwt_encode(1, api_key)}",
     }
 
 
@@ -100,8 +102,11 @@ def get_all_level_fields(fields: list) -> Iterator[DatasetField]:
 
 def get_manifest_list(manifests_dir: str) -> List[str]:
     """Get a list of manifest files from the manifest directory."""
-
     yml_endings = ["yml", "yaml"]
+
+    if isfile(manifests_dir) and manifests_dir.split(".")[-1] in yml_endings:
+        return [manifests_dir]
+
     manifest_list = []
     for yml_ending in yml_endings:
         manifest_list += glob.glob(f"{manifests_dir}/**/*.{yml_ending}", recursive=True)
@@ -136,6 +141,19 @@ def git_is_dirty(dir_to_check: str = ".") -> bool:
     Checks to see if the local repo has unstaged changes.
     Can also specify a directory to check.
     """
+
+    try:
+        from git.repo import Repo
+        from git.repo.fun import is_git_dir
+    except ImportError:
+        print("Git executable not detected, skipping git check...")
+        return False
+
+    git_dir_path = ".git/"
+    if not is_git_dir(git_dir_path):
+        print(f"No git repo detected at '{git_dir_path}', skipping git check...")
+        return False
+
     repo = Repo()
     git_session = repo.git()