diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 53443fb9db..46e0400e24 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -1496,9 +1496,10 @@ fetch.negotiationAlgorithm::
 	sent when negotiating the contents of the packfile to be sent by the
 	server. Set to "skipping" to use an algorithm that skips commits in an
 	effort to converge faster, but may result in a larger-than-necessary
-	packfile; any other value instructs Git to use the default algorithm
+	packfile; The default is "default" which instructs Git to use the default algorithm
 	that never skips commits (unless the server has acknowledged it or one
 	of its descendants).
+	Unknown values will cause 'git fetch' to error out.
 
 format.attach::
 	Enable multipart/mixed attachments as the default for
diff --git a/fetch-negotiator.c b/fetch-negotiator.c
index 5d283049f4..d6d685cba0 100644
--- a/fetch-negotiator.c
+++ b/fetch-negotiator.c
@@ -6,9 +6,15 @@
 void fetch_negotiator_init(struct fetch_negotiator *negotiator,
 			   const char *algorithm)
 {
-	if (algorithm && !strcmp(algorithm, "skipping")) {
-		skipping_negotiator_init(negotiator);
-		return;
+	if (algorithm) {
+		if (!strcmp(algorithm, "skipping")) {
+			skipping_negotiator_init(negotiator);
+			return;
+		} else if (!strcmp(algorithm, "default")) {
+			/* Fall through to default initialization */
+		} else {
+			die("unknown fetch negotiation algorithm '%s'", algorithm);
+		}
 	}
 	default_negotiator_init(negotiator);
 }
diff --git a/t/t5552-skipping-fetch-negotiator.sh b/t/t5552-skipping-fetch-negotiator.sh
index 0a8e0e42ed..3b60bd44e0 100755
--- a/t/t5552-skipping-fetch-negotiator.sh
+++ b/t/t5552-skipping-fetch-negotiator.sh
@@ -47,6 +47,29 @@ test_expect_success 'commits with no parents are sent regardless of skip distanc
 	have_not_sent c6 c4 c3
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'unknown fetch.negotiationAlgorithm values error out' '
+	rm -rf server client trace &&
+	git init server &&
+	test_commit -C server to_fetch &&
+
+	git init client &&
+	test_commit -C client on_client &&
+	git -C client checkout on_client &&
+
+	test_config -C client fetch.negotiationAlgorithm invalid &&
+	test_must_fail git -C client fetch "$(pwd)/server" 2>err &&
+	test_i18ngrep "unknown fetch negotiation algorithm" err &&
+
+	# Explicit "default" value
+	test_config -C client fetch.negotiationAlgorithm default &&
+	git -C client -c fetch.negotiationAlgorithm=default fetch "$(pwd)/server" &&
+
+	# Implementation detail: If there is nothing to fetch, we will not error out
+	test_config -C client fetch.negotiationAlgorithm invalid &&
+	git -C client fetch "$(pwd)/server" 2>err &&
+	test_i18ngrep ! "unknown fetch negotiation algorithm" err
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'when two skips collide, favor the larger one' '
 	rm -rf server client trace &&
 	git init server &&