diff --git a/src/app/rpmostree-pkg-builtins.c b/src/app/rpmostree-pkg-builtins.c
index 469a9c942c..a8b1a8a382 100644
--- a/src/app/rpmostree-pkg-builtins.c
+++ b/src/app/rpmostree-pkg-builtins.c
@@ -91,7 +91,8 @@ pkg_change (RpmOstreeCommandInvocation *invocation,
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "reboot", "b", opt_reboot);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "cache-only", "b", opt_cache_only);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "download-only", "b", opt_download_only);
-  g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "no-pull-base", "b", TRUE);
+  /* For historical reasons */
+  g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "no-pull-ostree-base", "b", TRUE);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "dry-run", "b", opt_dry_run);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "allow-inactive", "b", opt_allow_inactive);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "no-layering", "b", opt_uninstall_all);
diff --git a/src/daemon/org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.xml b/src/daemon/org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.xml
index 933e11c955..9754e7ac66 100644
--- a/src/daemon/org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.xml
+++ b/src/daemon/org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.xml
@@ -306,6 +306,8 @@
          "no-pull-base" (type 'b')
             Do not pull a base layer from the remote. Not valid if
             either "set-refspec" or "set-revision" is specified.
+         "no-pull-ostree-base" (type 'b')
+             Like no-pull-base, but only applies if the base is via ostree://.
          "dry-run" (type 'b')
             Stop short of deploying the new tree. If layering packages,
             the pkg diff is printed but packages are not downloaded or
diff --git a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-os.c b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-os.c
index a8f34a5beb..ec97ed3d63 100644
--- a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-os.c
+++ b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-os.c
@@ -182,6 +182,8 @@ os_authorize_method (GDBusInterfaceSkeleton *interface,
                                      G_VARIANT_TYPE("ah"));
       gboolean no_pull_base =
         vardict_lookup_bool (&options_dict, "no-pull-base", FALSE);
+      gboolean no_pull_ostree_base = no_pull_base ||
+        vardict_lookup_bool (&options_dict, "no-pull-ostree-base", FALSE);
       gboolean no_overrides =
         vardict_lookup_bool (&options_dict, "no-overrides", FALSE);
       gboolean no_layering =
@@ -194,7 +196,7 @@ os_authorize_method (GDBusInterfaceSkeleton *interface,
         g_ptr_array_add (actions, "org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.rebase");
       else if (revision != NULL)
         g_ptr_array_add (actions, "org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.deploy");
-      else if (!no_pull_base)
+      else if (!no_pull_base && !no_pull_ostree_base)
         g_ptr_array_add (actions, "org.projectatomic.rpmostree1.upgrade");
 
       if (install_pkgs != NULL || uninstall_pkgs != NULL || no_layering)
diff --git a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-transaction-types.c b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-transaction-types.c
index 1f5ecd68f0..e841fd07b7 100644
--- a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-transaction-types.c
+++ b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-transaction-types.c
@@ -793,6 +793,7 @@ deploy_transaction_execute (RpmostreedTransaction *transaction,
   /* Mainly for the `install` and `override` commands */
   const gboolean no_pull_base =
     ((self->flags & RPMOSTREE_TRANSACTION_DEPLOY_FLAG_NO_PULL_BASE) > 0);
+  const gboolean no_pull_ostree_base = deploy_has_bool_option (self, "no-pull-ostree-base");
   /* Used to background check for updates; this essentially means downloading the minimum
    * amount of metadata only to check if there's an upgrade */
   const gboolean download_metadata_only =
@@ -881,7 +882,7 @@ deploy_transaction_execute (RpmostreedTransaction *transaction,
   gboolean is_override = FALSE;
 
   /* In practice today */
-  if (self->flags & RPMOSTREE_TRANSACTION_DEPLOY_FLAG_NO_PULL_BASE)
+  if (self->flags & RPMOSTREE_TRANSACTION_DEPLOY_FLAG_NO_PULL_BASE || no_pull_ostree_base)
     {
       /* this is a heuristic; by the end, once the proper switches are added, the two
        * commands can look indistinguishable at the D-Bus level */
@@ -1128,8 +1129,20 @@ deploy_transaction_execute (RpmostreedTransaction *transaction,
   rpmostree_transaction_set_title ((RPMOSTreeTransaction*)self, txn_title->str);
 
   rpmostree_sysroot_upgrader_set_origin (upgrader, origin);
+  RpmOstreeRefspecType refspec_type;
+  rpmostree_origin_classify_refspec (origin, &refspec_type, NULL);
+  /* Now that we have the refspec type, find out if we should be pulling
+   * the base.  The idea here is that rojig defaults to pulling even for
+   * rpm-ostree install (which now uses `no-pull-ostree-base`),
+   * since the contents come from the same place.
+   *
+   * Perhaps we should be doing this for ostree as well...but I want
+   * to be conservative there for now.
+   */
+  const gboolean no_pull = no_pull_base ||
+    (no_pull_ostree_base && refspec_type == RPMOSTREE_REFSPEC_TYPE_OSTREE);
 
-  if (!no_pull_base)
+  if (!no_pull)
     {
       gboolean base_changed;
 
@@ -1208,10 +1221,6 @@ deploy_transaction_execute (RpmostreedTransaction *transaction,
       changed = TRUE;
     }
 
-  /* Past this point we've computed the origin */
-  RpmOstreeRefspecType refspec_type;
-  rpmostree_origin_classify_refspec (origin, &refspec_type, NULL);
-
   if (download_metadata_only)
     {
       /* We have to short-circuit the usual path here; we already downloaded the ostree