diff --git a/Makefile-lib.am b/Makefile-lib.am
index 7454e890..42636f25 100644
--- a/Makefile-lib.am
+++ b/Makefile-lib.am
@@ -32,9 +32,9 @@ librpmostree_1_la_SOURCES = \
 
 librpmostree_1_la_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS) -I$(srcdir)/libglnx -I$(srcdir)/src/libpriv -I$(srcdir)/src/lib \
 	-fvisibility=hidden '-D_RPMOSTREE_EXTERN=__attribute((visibility("default"))) extern' \
-	$(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_CFLAGS)
+	$(PKGDEP_LIBRPMOSTREE_CFLAGS)
 librpmostree_1_la_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) -version-number 1:0:0 -Bsymbolic-functions
-librpmostree_1_la_LIBADD =  $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_LIBS) libglnx.la
+librpmostree_1_la_LIBADD =  $(PKGDEP_LIBRPMOSTREE_LIBS) libglnx.la
 
 # XXX: work around clang being passed -fstack-clash-protection which it doesn't understand
 # https://github.com/projectatomic/rpm-ostree/pull/1787#issuecomment-473971585
diff --git a/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am b/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
index 0907bb01..e1f57856 100644
--- a/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
+++ b/Makefile-rpm-ostree.am
@@ -80,9 +80,9 @@ rpmostree_common_cflags = -I$(srcdir)/src/app -I$(srcdir)/src/daemon \
 	-DG_LOG_DOMAIN=\"rpm-ostreed\" \
 	-DLIBDIR=\"$(libdir)\" -DPKGLIBDIR=\"$(pkglibdir)\" \
 	-I $(top_srcdir)/libdnf \
-	$(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_CFLAGS)
+	$(PKGDEP_LIBRPMOSTREE_CFLAGS) $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_CFLAGS)
 rpmostree_bin_common_cflags = $(rpmostree_common_cflags)
-rpmostree_common_libs = libglnx.la librpmostree-1.la librpmostreecxxrs.la $(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE_LIBS)
+rpmostree_common_libs = libglnx.la librpmostree-1.la librpmostreecxxrs.la
 
 rpmostree_bin_common_libs = librpmostreeinternals.la $(rpmostree_common_libs)
 librpmostreeinternals_la_CFLAGS = $(AM_CFLAGS) $(rpmostree_common_cflags)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index bfdedbca..c159a775 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -65,15 +65,12 @@ AC_SUBST([RPM_OSTREE_FEATURES])
 
 PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG
 
-# Remember to update AM_CPPFLAGS in Makefile.am when bumping GIO req.
+dnl Remember to update AM_CPPFLAGS in Makefile.am when bumping GIO req.
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES(PKGDEP_GIO_UNIX, [gio-unix-2.0])
-# librepo libsolv etc. are libdnf dependencies
-PKG_CHECK_MODULES(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE, [gio-unix-2.0 >= 2.50.0 json-glib-1.0
-				     ostree-1 >= 2020.7
-				     libsystemd
-				     polkit-gobject-1
-				     rpm librepo libsolv libsolvext sqlite3 gpgme modulemd-2.0 json-c libcurl openssl
-				     libarchive])
+dnl These are the dependencies of the public librpmostree-1.0.0 shared library
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(PKGDEP_LIBRPMOSTREE, [gio-unix-2.0 >= 2.50.0 json-glib-1.0 ostree-1 >= 2020.7 rpm])
+dnl And these additional ones are used by for the rpmostreeinternals C/C++ library
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(PKGDEP_RPMOSTREE, [polkit-gobject-1 libarchive])
 
 dnl RHEL8.1 has old libarchive
 AS_IF([pkg-config --atleast-version=3.3.3 libarchive],