diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b897142ec3b..395dacf70d5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 - Fixes issue with filtering on a specific storage bucket using functions in the emulator (#3893)
 - Fixes check in Cloud Functions for Firebase initialization to check for API enablement before trying to enable them. (#2574)
 - No longer tries to clean up function build images from Artifact Registry when Artifact Registry is not enabled (#3943)
+- Show error message when running `firebase init hosting:github` with no Hosting config in `firebase.json` (#3113)
diff --git a/src/init/features/hosting/github.ts b/src/init/features/hosting/github.ts
index 96a9c38a849..f1052d33de9 100644
--- a/src/init/features/hosting/github.ts
+++ b/src/init/features/hosting/github.ts
@@ -54,6 +54,13 @@ export async function initGitHub(setup: Setup, config: any, options: any): Promi
     return reject("Could not determine Project ID, can't set up GitHub workflow.", { exit: 1 });
   }
 
+  if (!setup.config.hosting) {
+    return reject(
+      `Didn't find a Hosting config in firebase.json. Run ${bold("firebase init hosting")} instead.`,
+      { exit: 1 }
+    );
+  }
+
   logger.info();
 
   // Find existing Git/Github config