diff --git a/src/API.jl b/src/API.jl
index 0e4bea0d01..70a9dcacdd 100644
--- a/src/API.jl
+++ b/src/API.jl
@@ -498,6 +498,9 @@ status(pkgs::Vector{PackageSpec}; mode=PKGMODE_PROJECT) = status(Context(), pkgs
 function status(ctx::Context, pkgs::Vector{PackageSpec}; mode=PKGMODE_PROJECT)
     project_resolve!(ctx.env, pkgs)
     project_deps_resolve!(ctx.env, pkgs)
+    if mode === PKGMODE_MANIFEST
+        foreach(pkg -> pkg.mode = PKGMODE_MANIFEST, pkgs)
+    end
     manifest_resolve!(ctx.env, pkgs)
     ensure_resolved(ctx.env, pkgs)
     Pkg.Display.status(ctx, pkgs, mode=mode)
diff --git a/src/Display.jl b/src/Display.jl
index d3405074b6..43b8522e99 100644
--- a/src/Display.jl
+++ b/src/Display.jl
@@ -64,13 +64,17 @@ function status(ctx::Context, pkgs::Vector{PackageSpec}=PackageSpec[];
            println(pkg.name, " v", pkg.version)
         end
     end
-    if env.git != nothing
-        LibGit2.with(LibGit2.GitRepo(env.git)) do repo
-            git_path = LibGit2.path(repo)
-            project_path = relpath(env.project_file, git_path)
-            manifest_path = relpath(env.manifest_file, git_path)
-            project₀ = read_project(git_file_stream(repo, "HEAD:$project_path", fakeit=true))
-            manifest₀ = read_manifest(git_file_stream(repo, "HEAD:$manifest_path", fakeit=true))
+    if env.git !== nothing
+        try
+            LibGit2.with(LibGit2.GitRepo(env.git)) do repo
+                git_path = LibGit2.path(repo)
+                project_path = relpath(env.project_file, git_path)
+                manifest_path = relpath(env.manifest_file, git_path)
+                project₀ = read_project(git_file_stream(repo, "HEAD:$project_path", fakeit=true))
+                manifest₀ = read_manifest(git_file_stream(repo, "HEAD:$manifest_path", fakeit=true))
+            end
+        catch
+            @warn "Could not read project from HEAD, displaying absolute status instead."
         end
     end
     if mode == PKGMODE_PROJECT || mode == PKGMODE_COMBINED
diff --git a/test/api.jl b/test/api.jl
index bc4e47d33b..d072ada846 100644
--- a/test/api.jl
+++ b/test/api.jl
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ end
         Pkg.status(; mode=PKGMODE_MANIFEST)
         Pkg.status("Example"; mode=PKGMODE_MANIFEST)
         @test_deprecated Pkg.status(PKGMODE_MANIFEST)
+        # issue #1183: Test exist in manifest but not in project
+        Pkg.status("Test"; mode=PKGMODE_MANIFEST)
+        @test_throws PkgError Pkg.status("Test"; mode=Pkg.Types.PKGMODE_COMBINED)
+        @test_throws PkgError Pkg.status("Test"; mode=PKGMODE_PROJECT)
     end
 end
 
diff --git a/test/pkg.jl b/test/pkg.jl
index 55151bf734..f338e7aac2 100644
--- a/test/pkg.jl
+++ b/test/pkg.jl
@@ -728,6 +728,19 @@ end
     end end
 end
 
+@testset "issue #1180: broken toml-files in HEAD" begin
+    temp_pkg_dir() do dir; cd(dir) do
+        write("Project.toml", "[deps]\nExample = \n")
+        LibGit2.with(LibGit2.init(dir)) do repo
+            LibGit2.add!(repo, "*")
+            LibGit2.commit(repo, "initial commit"; author=TEST_SIG, committer=TEST_SIG)
+        end
+        write("Project.toml", "[deps]\nExample = \"7876af07-990d-54b4-ab0e-23690620f79a\"\n")
+        Pkg.activate(dir)
+        @test_logs (:warn, r"Could not read project from HEAD") Pkg.status()
+    end end
+end
+
 import Markdown
 @testset "REPL command doc generation" begin
     # test that the way doc building extracts