Perturbations in lysosome integrity are frequently linked to neurological disorders and ageing, but the underlying pathogenic mechanisms are incompletely understood. Using an unbiased proteomic approach, we here identified the bridge-like lipid transport protein VPS13C/PARK23 as a key component of a global early response pathway to lysosome damage. VPS13C readily binds lysosomes under mechanical or osmotic tension in anticipation of membrane lesions. The latter trigger a conformational change in the protein’s C-terminus, involving its ATG2C domain acting as sensor of damage-induced lipid packing defects. We show that ER-lysosome contacts formed by VPS13C provide critical binding platforms for OSBP/ORPs to enable efficient ER wrapping of damaged lysosomes. A chemical approach to assess directional ER-to-lysosome lipid transport revealed that VPS13C is essential for large-scale lipid delivery to acutely damaged lysosomes to facilitate their repair. Our findings offer new mechanistic insights into how loss-of-function mutations in VPS13C may enhance the risk of Parkinson’s disease.