diff --git a/maint.mk b/maint.mk
index ff5400fe..9b773570 100644
--- a/maint.mk
+++ b/maint.mk
@@ -1032,6 +1032,11 @@ sc_const_long_option:
 	halt='add "const" to the above declarations'			\
 	  $(_sc_search_regexp)
 
+sc_prohibit_gs_unref:
+	@prohibit='\bgs_unref_(keyfile|variant*|ptrarray|hashtable|bytes|object)\b' \
+	halt="do not use gs_unref_*; use g_autoptr instead"		\
+	  $(_sc_search_regexp)
+
 NEWS_hash =								\
   $$($(SED) -n '/^\*.* $(PREV_VERSION_REGEXP) ([0-9-]*)/,$$p'		\
        $(srcdir)/NEWS							\