diff --git a/src/tagger.py b/src/tagger.py
index a806c9c8d51e7272e0e876d3f995a400b39aa2e6..b659dd351ba4df814ef0bf7882a688642809f131 100644
--- a/src/tagger.py
+++ b/src/tagger.py
@@ -137,10 +137,11 @@ class TaggerWorker(nlp_ws.NLPWorker):
             _dir_style = True
             json_lpmn = [json_lpmn]
 
-        with open(input_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
-            text = f.read(50)
-            if text.startswith("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>"):
-                _tei_style = True
+        if not _dir_style:
+            with open(input_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
+                text = f.read(50)
+                if text.startswith("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>"):
+                    _tei_style = True
 
         _log.error(f"{_dir_style=} {_tei_style=}")