diff --git a/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/object.go b/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/object.go
index 2d511d7090b..baa585f4cf3 100644
--- a/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/object.go
+++ b/pkg/registry/apis/provisioning/resources/object.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package resources
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
 
 	provisioning "github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/apis/provisioning/v0alpha1"
 	"github.com/grafana/grafana/pkg/storage/unified/resource"
@@ -18,6 +19,9 @@ type ResourceListerFromSearch struct {
 }
 
 func NewResourceLister(index resource.RepositoryIndexClient) ResourceLister {
+	if index == nil {
+		return &errorLister{}
+	}
 	return &ResourceListerFromSearch{
 		index: index,
 	}
@@ -76,3 +80,15 @@ func (o *ResourceListerFromSearch) Stats(ctx context.Context, namespace, reposit
 	}
 	return stats, nil
 }
+
+type errorLister struct{}
+
+// List implements ResourceLister.
+func (e *errorLister) List(ctx context.Context, namespace string, repository string) (*provisioning.ResourceList, error) {
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("missing search index")
+}
+
+// Stats implements ResourceLister.
+func (e *errorLister) Stats(ctx context.Context, namespace string, repository string) (*provisioning.ResourceStats, error) {
+	return nil, fmt.Errorf("missing search index")
+}