diff --git a/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/lint.js b/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/lint.js
index b4d98acc6f..c36b60682b 100644
--- a/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/lint.js
+++ b/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/lint.js
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+const globby = require('globby')
+
 const renamedArrayArgs = {
   ext: 'extensions',
   env: 'envs',
@@ -23,7 +25,7 @@ const defaultFilesToLint = [
   // .eslintrc files (ignored by default)
   '.*.js',
   '{src,tests}/**/.*.js'
-]
+].filter(pattern => globby.sync(pattern).length)
 
 module.exports = function lint (args = {}, api) {
   const path = require('path')
diff --git a/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/package.json b/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/package.json
index 1cc6a4dc93..48c879725b 100644
--- a/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/package.json
+++ b/packages/@vue/cli-plugin-eslint/package.json
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
     "babel-eslint": "^10.0.1",
     "eslint": "^4.19.1",
     "eslint-loader": "^2.1.1",
-    "eslint-plugin-vue": "^4.7.1"
+    "eslint-plugin-vue": "^4.7.1",
+    "globby": "^8.0.1"
   }
 }