diff --git a/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/filesystem.ts b/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/filesystem.ts
index eb60e840a7..8414c5a82f 100644
--- a/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/filesystem.ts
+++ b/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/filesystem.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
+import {isMainThread} from 'node:worker_threads'
+
 import {BudError} from '../errors/errors.js'
 import {Filesystem} from '../filesystem/index.js'
+import {paths} from './paths.js'
 
 let filesystem: Filesystem
 
@@ -13,6 +16,16 @@ export const get = (basedir?: string) => {
 
   filesystem = new Filesystem(basedir)
 
+  /**
+   * change directory to basedir for process.cwd() to work as expected
+   *
+   * @remarks
+   * - no need to do this if the basedir is the same as the cwd
+   * - workers don't support process.chdir
+   */
+  const modifiedBaseDirectory = paths.basedir !== process.cwd()
+  if (isMainThread && modifiedBaseDirectory) process.chdir(basedir)
+
   return filesystem
 }
 
diff --git a/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/paths.ts b/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/paths.ts
index 83fbd9a0a3..4462c0627e 100644
--- a/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/paths.ts
+++ b/sources/@roots/bud-support/src/utilities/paths.ts
@@ -102,4 +102,4 @@ This is most likely a problem with the internals of bud.js.`,
   return paths
 }
 
-export {get}
+export {get, paths}