diff --git a/index.mk b/index.mk
index 7eddeea..227175a 100644
--- a/index.mk
+++ b/index.mk
@@ -22,8 +22,17 @@ export PATH := ./node_modules/.bin:$(PATH)
 # Use bash not sh
 SHELL := /bin/bash
 
+ifeq ("$(wildcard node_modules/@financial-times/n-gage/index.mk)","")
+PATH_TO_NGAGE := ""
+else
+PATH_TO_NGAGE := "node_modules/@financial-times/n-gage/"
+endif
+
 # verify that secret-squirrel is set up to run on each commit
-SQUIRRELIFY := $(shell node node_modules/@financial-times/n-gage/scripts/squirrelify.js)
+SQUIRRELIFY := $(shell node ${PATH_TO_NGAGE}scripts/squirrelify.js)
+ifneq ("$(SQUIRRELIFY)","squirrel ok")
+$(error ${SQUIRRELIFY})
+endif
 
 # Some handy utilities
 GLOB = git ls-files -z $1 | tr '\0' '\n' | xargs -I {} find {} ! -type l
diff --git a/scripts/squirrelify.js b/scripts/squirrelify.js
index 6474474..306d3d5 100644
--- a/scripts/squirrelify.js
+++ b/scripts/squirrelify.js
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ try {
 	if (preCommit.indexOf('node_modules/.bin/secret-squirrel') === -1) {
 		squirrelError();
 	}
+	console.log('squirrel ok');
 } catch (e) {
 	squirrelError();
 }
diff --git a/secret-squirrel.js b/secret-squirrel.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2850c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/secret-squirrel.js
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+module.exports = {
+	files: {
+		allow: [],
+		allowOverrides: []
+	},
+	strings: {
+		deny: [],
+		denyOverrides: []
+	}
+};