diff --git a/playbooks/roles/gitea/tasks/main.yaml b/playbooks/roles/gitea/tasks/main.yaml
index 08e8128d09..90bb04db09 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/gitea/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/playbooks/roles/gitea/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -126,3 +126,11 @@
       key: "{{ gitea_gerrit_public_key }}"
       read_only: false
       title: "Gerrit replication key"
+- name: Set up cron job to pack git refs
+  cron:
+    name: pack-git-refs
+    state: present
+    job: "docker exec -t giteadocker_gitea-web_1 find /data/git/repositories/ -maxdepth 2 -name *.git -type d -execdir git --git-dir={} gc \\;"
+    minute: 37
+    hour: 12
+    weekday: 0