diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt
index 00224dea61..3486f9f749 100644
--- a/Documentation/config.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config.txt
@@ -627,6 +627,13 @@ Note that you cannot generally put `git for-each-ref` directly into the config
 value, as it does not take a repository path as an argument (but you can wrap
 the command above in a shell script).
 
+core.alternateRefsPrefixes::
+	When listing references from an alternate, list only references that begin
+	with the given prefix. Prefixes match as if they were given as arguments to
+	linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. To list multiple prefixes, separate them with
+	whitespace. If `core.alternateRefsCommand` is set, setting
+	`core.alternateRefsPrefixes` has no effect.
+
 core.bare::
 	If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
 	working directory associated with it.  If this is the case a
diff --git a/t/t5410-receive-pack-alternates.sh b/t/t5410-receive-pack-alternates.sh
index 49d0fe44fb..457c20c2a5 100755
--- a/t/t5410-receive-pack-alternates.sh
+++ b/t/t5410-receive-pack-alternates.sh
@@ -30,4 +30,12 @@ test_expect_success 'with core.alternateRefsCommand' '
 	test_cmp expect actual.haves
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'with core.alternateRefsPrefixes' '
+	test_config -C fork core.alternateRefsPrefixes "refs/heads/private" &&
+	git rev-parse private/branch >expect &&
+	printf "0000" | git receive-pack fork >actual &&
+	extract_haves <actual >actual.haves &&
+	test_cmp expect actual.haves
+'
+
 test_done
diff --git a/transport.c b/transport.c
index 19baec7942..90a3350936 100644
--- a/transport.c
+++ b/transport.c
@@ -1341,6 +1341,11 @@ static void fill_alternate_refs_command(struct child_process *cmd,
 		argv_array_pushf(&cmd->args, "--git-dir=%s", repo_path);
 		argv_array_push(&cmd->args, "for-each-ref");
 		argv_array_push(&cmd->args, "--format=%(objectname)");
+
+		if (!git_config_get_value("core.alternateRefsPrefixes", &value)) {
+			argv_array_push(&cmd->args, "--");
+			argv_array_split(&cmd->args, value);
+		}
 	}
 
 	cmd->env = local_repo_env;