diff --git a/docs/installation/mac.md b/docs/installation/mac.md
index fe89c652f..9d1abce07 100644
--- a/docs/installation/mac.md
+++ b/docs/installation/mac.md
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ archive. We recommend installing from archive on Mac.
 
 ### Installing Elasticsearch from the archive
 
+We recommend that you **do not** install Elasticsearch in the app directory.
+Instead, we recommend installing it in your home directory (for example,
+`cd $HOME`). (This also ensures that we don't accidentally commit Elasticsearch
+code to the project's repository!)
+
 The following directions were
 [taken from the Elasticsearch docs themselves](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/targz.html#install-macos),
 so check those out if you run into any issues or want further information. Make
diff --git a/docs/installation/windows.md b/docs/installation/windows.md
index 1657c1719..5e6bb4749 100644
--- a/docs/installation/windows.md
+++ b/docs/installation/windows.md
@@ -171,6 +171,11 @@ WSL.
 Forem requires a version of Elasticsearch between 7.1 and 7.5. Version 7.6 is
 not supported. We recommend version 7.5.2.
 
+We recommend that you **do not** install Elasticsearch in the app directory.
+Instead, we recommend installing it in your home directory (for example,
+`cd $HOME`). (This also ensures that we don't accidentally commit Elasticsearch
+code to the project's repository!)
+
 The following directions were taken from
 [the Elasticsearch docs](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/7.5/targz.html#install-linux),
 check them out to learn more about the installation process and troubleshooting