diff --git a/pungi/ostree/utils.py b/pungi/ostree/utils.py
index 02540c92..d80fb9f8 100644
--- a/pungi/ostree/utils.py
+++ b/pungi/ostree/utils.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import datetime
 import json
 import os
+import rpmUtils.arch
 
 from pungi.util import makedirs
 
@@ -29,14 +30,21 @@ def make_log_file(log_dir, filename):
     return os.path.join(log_dir, '%s.log' % filename)
 
 
-def get_ref_from_treefile(treefile):
-    """Return ref name by parsing the tree config file"""
+def get_ref_from_treefile(treefile, arch=None):
+    """
+    Return ref name by parsing the tree config file. Replacing ${basearch} with
+    the basearch of the architecture we are running on or of the passed in arch.
+    """
     ref = None
     if os.path.isfile(treefile):
         with open(treefile, 'r') as f:
             try:
                 parsed = json.loads(f.read())
-                ref = parsed['ref']
+                if arch is None:
+                    basearch = rpmUtils.arch.getBaseArch()
+                else:
+                    basearch = rpmUtils.arch.getBaseArch(arch)
+                ref = parsed['ref'].replace('${basearch}', basearch)
             except Exception as e:
                 print('Unable to get ref from treefile: %s' % e)
     else:
diff --git a/pungi/phases/ostree.py b/pungi/phases/ostree.py
index ebe03d0d..e61e969c 100644
--- a/pungi/phases/ostree.py
+++ b/pungi/phases/ostree.py
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ class OSTreeThread(WorkerThread):
                              extra_config_file=extra_config_file)
 
         if compose.notifier:
-            ref = get_ref_from_treefile(os.path.join(repodir, config['treefile']))
+            ref = get_ref_from_treefile(os.path.join(repodir, config['treefile']), arch)
             # 'pungi-make-ostree tree' writes commitid to commitid.log in logdir
             commitid = get_commitid_from_commitid_file(os.path.join(self.logdir, 'commitid.log'))
             compose.notifier.send('ostree',