diff --git a/Documentation/config/maintenance.adoc b/Documentation/config/maintenance.adoc
index 45fdafc2c6..b7e90a71a3 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/maintenance.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/config/maintenance.adoc
@@ -16,19 +16,25 @@ detach.
 
 maintenance.strategy::
 	This string config option provides a way to specify one of a few
-	recommended schedules for background maintenance. This only affects
-	which tasks are run during `git maintenance run --schedule=X`
-	commands, provided no `--task=<task>` arguments are provided.
-	Further, if a `maintenance.<task>.schedule` config value is set,
-	then that value is used instead of the one provided by
-	`maintenance.strategy`. The possible strategy strings are:
+	recommended strategies for repository maintenance. This affects
+	which tasks are run during `git maintenance run`, provided no
+	`--task=<task>` arguments are provided. This setting impacts manual
+	maintenance, auto-maintenance as well as scheduled maintenance. The
+	tasks that run may be different depending on the maintenance type.
 +
-* `none`: This default setting implies no tasks are run at any schedule.
+The maintenance strategy can be further tweaked by setting
+`maintenance.<task>.enabled` and `maintenance.<task>.schedule`. If set, these
+values are used instead of the defaults provided by `maintenance.strategy`.
++
+The possible strategies are:
++
+* `none`: This strategy implies no tasks are run at all. This is the default
+  strategy for scheduled maintenance.
 * `incremental`: This setting optimizes for performing small maintenance
   activities that do not delete any data. This does not schedule the `gc`
   task, but runs the `prefetch` and `commit-graph` tasks hourly, the
   `loose-objects` and `incremental-repack` tasks daily, and the `pack-refs`
-  task weekly.
+  task weekly. Manual repository maintenance uses the `gc` task.
 
 maintenance.<task>.enabled::
 	This boolean config option controls whether the maintenance task
diff --git a/builtin/gc.c b/builtin/gc.c
index 6cc4f98c7a..3c0a9a2e5d 100644
--- a/builtin/gc.c
+++ b/builtin/gc.c
@@ -1873,6 +1873,20 @@ static const struct maintenance_strategy incremental_strategy = {
 			.type = MAINTENANCE_TYPE_SCHEDULED,
 			.schedule = SCHEDULE_WEEKLY,
 		},
+		/*
+		 * Historically, the "incremental" strategy was only available
+		 * in the context of scheduled maintenance when set up via
+		 * "maintenance.strategy". We have later expanded that config
+		 * to also cover manual maintenance.
+		 *
+		 * To retain backwards compatibility with the previous status
+		 * quo we thus run git-gc(1) in case manual maintenance was
+		 * requested. This is the same as the default strategy, which
+		 * would have been in use beforehand.
+		 */
+		[TASK_GC] = {
+			.type = MAINTENANCE_TYPE_MANUAL,
+		},
 	},
 };
 
@@ -1916,19 +1930,20 @@ static void initialize_task_config(struct maintenance_run_opts *opts,
 	 *   - Unscheduled maintenance uses our default strategy.
 	 *
 	 * Both of these are affected by the gitconfig though, which may
-	 * override specific aspects of our strategy.
+	 * override specific aspects of our strategy. Furthermore, both
+	 * strategies can be overridden by setting "maintenance.strategy".
 	 */
 	if (opts->schedule) {
-		if (!repo_config_get_string_tmp(the_repository, "maintenance.strategy", &config_str))
-			strategy = parse_maintenance_strategy(config_str);
-		else
-			strategy = none_strategy;
+		strategy = none_strategy;
 		type = MAINTENANCE_TYPE_SCHEDULED;
 	} else {
 		strategy = default_strategy;
 		type = MAINTENANCE_TYPE_MANUAL;
 	}
 
+	if (!repo_config_get_string_tmp(the_repository, "maintenance.strategy", &config_str))
+		strategy = parse_maintenance_strategy(config_str);
+
 	for (size_t i = 0; i < TASK__COUNT; i++) {
 		int config_value;
 
diff --git a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
index 0fb917dd7b..5219bc17a6 100755
--- a/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
+++ b/t/t7900-maintenance.sh
@@ -886,6 +886,46 @@ test_expect_success 'maintenance.strategy inheritance' '
 		<modified-daily.txt
 '
 
+test_strategy () {
+	STRATEGY="$1"
+	shift
+
+	cat >expect &&
+	rm -f trace2.txt &&
+	GIT_TRACE2_EVENT="$(pwd)/trace2.txt" \
+		git -c maintenance.strategy=$STRATEGY maintenance run --quiet "$@" &&
+	sed -n 's/{"event":"child_start","sid":"[^/"]*",.*,"argv":\["\(.*\)\"]}/\1/p' <trace2.txt |
+		sed 's/","/ /g'  >actual
+	test_cmp expect actual
+}
+
+test_expect_success 'maintenance.strategy is respected' '
+	test_when_finished "rm -rf repo" &&
+	git init repo &&
+	(
+		cd repo &&
+		test_commit initial &&
+
+		test_must_fail git -c maintenance.strategy=unknown maintenance run 2>err &&
+		test_grep "unknown maintenance strategy: .unknown." err &&
+
+		test_strategy incremental <<-\EOF &&
+		git pack-refs --all --prune
+		git reflog expire --all
+		git gc --quiet --no-detach --skip-foreground-tasks
+		EOF
+
+		test_strategy incremental --schedule=weekly <<-\EOF
+		git pack-refs --all --prune
+		git prune-packed --quiet
+		git multi-pack-index write --no-progress
+		git multi-pack-index expire --no-progress
+		git multi-pack-index repack --no-progress --batch-size=1
+		git commit-graph write --split --reachable --no-progress
+		EOF
+	)
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'register and unregister' '
 	test_when_finished git config --global --unset-all maintenance.repo &&