diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index a0e380ace9..09d75769af 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+git-annex (10.20250631) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * p2phttp: Scan multilevel directories with --directory.
+
+ -- Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>  Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:59:42 -0400
+
 git-annex (10.20250630) upstream; urgency=medium
 
   * Work around git 2.50 bug that caused it to crash when there is a merge
diff --git a/Command/P2PHttp.hs b/Command/P2PHttp.hs
index 029307ed10..3d61c213ef 100644
--- a/Command/P2PHttp.hs
+++ b/Command/P2PHttp.hs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {- git-annex command
  -
- - Copyright 2024 Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
+ - Copyright 2024-2025 Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>
  -
  - Licensed under the GNU AGPL version 3 or higher.
  -}
@@ -21,11 +21,13 @@ import qualified Git
 import qualified Git.Construct
 import qualified Annex
 import Types.Concurrency
+import qualified Utility.RawFilePath as R
 
 import Servant
 import qualified Network.Wai.Handler.Warp as Warp
 import qualified Network.Wai.Handler.WarpTLS as Warp
 import Network.Socket (PortNumber)
+import System.PosixCompat.Files (isSymbolicLink)
 import qualified Data.Map as M
 import Data.String
 import Control.Concurrent.STM
@@ -268,6 +270,20 @@ findRepos :: Options -> IO [Git.Repo]
 findRepos o = do
 	files <- concat
 		<$> mapM (dirContents . toOsPath) (directoryOption o)
-	map Git.Construct.newFrom . catMaybes 
-		<$> mapM Git.Construct.checkForRepo files
-
+	concat <$> mapM go files
+  where
+	go f = Git.Construct.checkForRepo f >>= \case
+		Just loc -> return [Git.Construct.newFrom loc]
+		Nothing -> 
+			-- Avoid following symlinks, both to avoid
+			-- cycles and in case there is an unexpected
+			-- symlink to some other directory we are not
+			-- supposed to serve.
+			ifM (isSymbolicLink <$> R.getSymbolicLinkStatus f)
+				( return []
+				-- Ignore any errors getting the contents of a
+				-- subdirectory.
+				, catchNonAsync
+					(concat <$> (mapM go =<< dirContents f))
+					(const (return []))
+				)
diff --git a/doc/git-annex-p2phttp.mdwn b/doc/git-annex-p2phttp.mdwn
index 4dd7869c92..c712721fb1 100644
--- a/doc/git-annex-p2phttp.mdwn
+++ b/doc/git-annex-p2phttp.mdwn
@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@ convenient way to download the content of any key, by using the path
 
 * `--directory=path`
 
-  Serve each git-annex repository found in immediate 
-  subdirectories of a directory.
+  Serve each git-annex repository found in subdirectories of the directory.
+  For example, `--directory=/foo` will find git-annex repositories
+  in `/foo/bar`, `/foo/user/bar`, and so on. Note that a git-annex
+  repository located within another git-annex repository will not be found.
 
   This option can be provided more than once to serve several directories
   full of git-annex repositories.