diff --git a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-deployment-utils.c b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-deployment-utils.c
index 074a5265..ed38a88b 100644
--- a/src/daemon/rpmostreed-deployment-utils.c
+++ b/src/daemon/rpmostreed-deployment-utils.c
@@ -223,7 +223,7 @@ rpmostreed_deployment_generate_variant (OstreeDeployment *deployment,
     g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "osname", "s", osname);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "serial", "i", serial);
   g_variant_dict_insert (&dict, "checksum", "s", csum);
-  if (origin_packages)
+  if (origin_packages != NULL && g_strv_length (origin_packages) > 0)
     {
       const char *parent = ostree_commit_get_parent (commit);
       g_assert (parent);