diff --git a/cmd/mungedocs/mungedocs.go b/cmd/mungedocs/mungedocs.go
index 87e8641361b..5f41e02a045 100644
--- a/cmd/mungedocs/mungedocs.go
+++ b/cmd/mungedocs/mungedocs.go
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ var (
 	verbose   = flag.Bool("verbose", false, "On verification failure, emit pre-munge and post-munge versions.")
 	verify    = flag.Bool("verify", false, "Exit with status 1 if files would have needed changes but do not change.")
 	norecurse = flag.Bool("norecurse", false, "Only process the files of --root-dir.")
+	upstream  = flag.String("upstream", "upstream", "The name of the upstream Git remote to pull from")
 	rootDir   = flag.String("root-dir", "", "Root directory containing documents to be processed.")
 	// "repo-root" seems like a dumb name, this is the relative path (from rootDir) to get to the repoRoot
 	relRoot = flag.String("repo-root", "..", `Appended to --root-dir to get the repository root.
@@ -199,7 +200,7 @@ func main() {
 	flag.Parse()
 
 	if *rootDir == "" {
-		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "usage: %s [--help] [--verify] [--norecurse] --root-dir [--skip-munges=<skip list>] <docs root>\n", flag.Arg(0))
+		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "usage: %s [--help] [--verify] [--norecurse] --root-dir [--skip-munges=<skip list>] [--upstream=<git remote>] <docs root>\n", flag.Arg(0))
 		os.Exit(1)
 	}
 
@@ -216,14 +217,14 @@ func main() {
 		os.Exit(2)
 	}
 	inJenkins = len(os.Getenv("JENKINS_HOME")) != 0
-	out, err := exec.Command("git", "ls-tree", "-r", "--name-only", fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", "upstream", latestReleaseBranch), absRootDir).CombinedOutput()
+	out, err := exec.Command("git", "ls-tree", "-r", "--name-only", fmt.Sprintf("%s/%s", *upstream, latestReleaseBranch), absRootDir).CombinedOutput()
 	if err != nil {
 		if inJenkins {
 			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "output: %s,\nERROR: %v\n", out, err)
 			os.Exit(2)
 		} else {
 			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stdout, "output: %s,\nERROR: %v\n", out, err)
-			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stdout, "`git ls-tree -r --name-only upstream/%s failed. We'll ignore this error locally, but Jenkins may pick an error. Munger uses the output of this command to determine in unversioned warning, if it should add a link to the doc in release branch.\n", latestReleaseBranch)
+			fmt.Fprintf(os.Stdout, "`git ls-tree -r --name-only %s/%s failed. We'll ignore this error locally, but Jenkins may pick an error. Munger uses the output of this command to determine in unversioned warning, if it should add a link to the doc in release branch.\n", *upstream, latestReleaseBranch)
 			filesInLatestRelease = ""
 		}
 	} else {
diff --git a/hack/after-build/update-generated-docs.sh b/hack/after-build/update-generated-docs.sh
index c74c7e3ba4f..735c83737c3 100755
--- a/hack/after-build/update-generated-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/after-build/update-generated-docs.sh
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ shopt -u dotglob
 kube::util::gen-analytics "${KUBE_ROOT}"
 
 mungedocs=$(kube::util::find-binary "mungedocs")
-"${mungedocs}" "--root-dir=${KUBE_ROOT}/docs/" && ret=0 || ret=$?
+"${mungedocs}" "--upstream=${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM}" "--root-dir=${KUBE_ROOT}/docs/" && ret=0 || ret=$?
 if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
   echo "${KUBE_ROOT}/docs/ requires manual changes.  See preceding errors."
   exit 1
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ elif [[ $ret -gt 1 ]]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-"${mungedocs}" "--root-dir=${KUBE_ROOT}/examples/" && ret=0 || ret=$?
+"${mungedocs}" "--upstream=${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM}" "--root-dir=${KUBE_ROOT}/examples/" && ret=0 || ret=$?
 if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
   echo "${KUBE_ROOT}/examples/ requires manual changes.  See preceding errors."
   exit 1
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ elif [[ $ret -gt 1 ]]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-"${mungedocs}" "--skip-munges=unversioned-warning,analytics" \
+"${mungedocs}" "--upstream=${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM}" \
+               "--skip-munges=unversioned-warning,analytics" \
                "--norecurse" \
                "--root-dir=${KUBE_ROOT}/" && ret=0 || ret=$?
 if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
diff --git a/hack/after-build/verify-generated-docs.sh b/hack/after-build/verify-generated-docs.sh
index 8087772e9bf..bc6714aa7e1 100755
--- a/hack/after-build/verify-generated-docs.sh
+++ b/hack/after-build/verify-generated-docs.sh
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ EXAMPLEROOT="${KUBE_ROOT}/examples/"
 # mungedocs --verify can (and should) be run on the real docs, otherwise their
 # links will be distorted. --verify means that it will not make changes.
 # --verbose gives us output we can use for a diff.
-"${mungedocs}" "--verify=true" "--verbose=true" "--root-dir=${DOCROOT}" && ret=0 || ret=$?
+"${mungedocs}" "--verify=true" "--verbose=true" "--upstream=${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM}" "--root-dir=${DOCROOT}" && ret=0 || ret=$?
 if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
   echo "${DOCROOT} is out of date. Please run hack/update-generated-docs.sh"
   exit 1
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if [[ $ret -gt 1 ]]; then
   exit 1
 fi
 
-"${mungedocs}" "--verify=true" "--verbose=true" "--root-dir=${EXAMPLEROOT}" && ret=0 || ret=$?
+"${mungedocs}" "--verify=true" "--verbose=true" "--upstream=${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM}" "--root-dir=${EXAMPLEROOT}" && ret=0 || ret=$?
 if [[ $ret -eq 1 ]]; then
   echo "${EXAMPLEROOT} is out of date. Please run hack/update-generated-docs.sh"
   exit 1
diff --git a/hack/lib/init.sh b/hack/lib/init.sh
index 9fa47ca2dfe..eaacbdae9e4 100644
--- a/hack/lib/init.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/init.sh
@@ -40,6 +40,8 @@ source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/version.sh"
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/golang.sh"
 source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/etcd.sh"
 
+KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM="${KUBE_GIT_UPSTREAM:-upstream}"
+
 KUBE_OUTPUT_HOSTBIN="${KUBE_OUTPUT_BINPATH}/$(kube::util::host_platform)"
 
 # emulates "readlink -f" which is not available on BSD (OS X).
@@ -48,7 +50,7 @@ function readlinkdashf {
   # Follow links until there are no more links to follow.
   while readlink "$path"; do
     path="$(readlink $path)"
-  done 
+  done
   # Convert to canonical path.
   path=$(cd "$(dirname "${path}")" && pwd -P)
   echo "$path"