diff --git a/Documentation/config/transfer.adoc b/Documentation/config/transfer.adoc
index f1ce50f4a6..811456f1bf 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/transfer.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/config/transfer.adoc
@@ -1,3 +1,19 @@
+transfer.connectivityCheck::
+	Choose which algorithm to use for the connectivity check
+	performed during object transfer operations such as
+	linkgit:git-fetch[1] and linkgit:git-receive-pack[1].
+	The connectivity check verifies that all objects reachable
+	from the incoming tips are available locally or, in a partial
+	clone, promised by a promisor remote.
+	The variants are as follows:
++
+--
+`full` (default);;
+	Walk the full object closure of the boundary commits.
+--
++
+Unknown values are treated as `full`, with a warning.
+
 transfer.credentialsInUrl::
 	A configured URL can contain plaintext credentials in the form
 	`<protocol>://<user>:<password>@<domain>/<path>`. You may want
diff --git a/Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc b/Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc
index bd9f345690..3979a142a5 100644
--- a/Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc
+++ b/Documentation/rev-list-options.adoc
@@ -1102,6 +1102,11 @@ It is an error to use `--missing-only` without `--missing=print` or
 	stronger than `--missing=allow-promisor` because it limits the
 	traversal, rather than just silencing errors about missing
 	objects.
+
+`--connectivity-check=full`::
+	(For internal use only.)  Used by `check_connected()` to
+	select the connectivity check algorithm; see
+	`transfer.connectivityCheck` in linkgit:git-config[1].
 endif::git-rev-list[]
 
 `--no-walk[=(sorted|unsorted)]`::
diff --git a/builtin/rev-list.c b/builtin/rev-list.c
index 0faa833fac..619855f4e4 100644
--- a/builtin/rev-list.c
+++ b/builtin/rev-list.c
@@ -29,6 +29,23 @@
 #include "quote.h"
 #include "strbuf.h"
 
+enum connectivity_check_mode {
+	CONNECTIVITY_CHECK_FULL,
+};
+
+struct connectivity_check {
+	enum connectivity_check_mode mode;
+};
+
+static void parse_connectivity_check(const char *arg,
+				     struct connectivity_check *check)
+{
+	if (!strcmp(arg, "full"))
+		check->mode = CONNECTIVITY_CHECK_FULL;
+	else
+		die(_("unknown --connectivity-check mode '%s'"), arg);
+}
+
 struct rev_list_info {
 	struct rev_info *revs;
 	int flags;
@@ -727,6 +744,7 @@ int cmd_rev_list(int argc,
 	int bisect_find_all = 0;
 	int use_bitmap_index = 0;
 	int filter_provided_objects = 0;
+	struct connectivity_check connectivity_check = { 0 };
 	const char *show_progress = NULL;
 	int ret = 0;
 
@@ -769,6 +787,8 @@ int cmd_rev_list(int argc,
 		if (!strcmp(arg, "--exclude-promisor-objects")) {
 			repo->fetch_if_missing = 0;
 			revs.exclude_promisor_objects = 1;
+		} else if (skip_prefix(arg, "--connectivity-check=", &arg)) {
+			parse_connectivity_check(arg, &connectivity_check);
 		} else if (skip_prefix(arg, "--missing=", &arg)) {
 			parse_missing_action_value(repo, arg);
 		} else if (!strcmp(arg, "--missing-only")) {
@@ -848,6 +868,8 @@ int cmd_rev_list(int argc,
 
 		if (!strcmp(arg, "--exclude-promisor-objects"))
 			continue; /* already handled above */
+		if (starts_with(arg, "--connectivity-check="))
+			continue; /* already handled above */
 		if (skip_prefix(arg, "--missing=", &arg))
 			continue; /* already handled above */
 
diff --git a/connected.c b/connected.c
index 34045f1032..0147b7d3b3 100644
--- a/connected.c
+++ b/connected.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include "git-compat-util.h"
+#include "config.h"
 #include "gettext.h"
 #include "hex.h"
 #include "odb.h"
@@ -66,6 +67,27 @@ static int check_connected_promisor(struct repository *repo,
 	return 1;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Fills in the --connectivity-check mode to pass to rev-list.
+ */
+static void connectivity_check_mode(struct repository *repo,
+				    struct strbuf *mode)
+{
+	const char *algorithm = NULL;
+
+	if (repo_config_get_string_tmp(repo,
+				       "transfer.connectivitycheck",
+				       &algorithm))
+		algorithm = "full";
+	if (!strcasecmp(algorithm, "full"))
+		strbuf_addstr(mode, "full");
+	else {
+		warning(_("unknown transfer.connectivityCheck algorithm '%s', "
+			  "using 'full'"), algorithm);
+		strbuf_addstr(mode, "full");
+	}
+}
+
 /*
  * If we feed all the commits we want to verify to this command
  *
@@ -84,6 +106,7 @@ int check_connected(struct repository *repo,
 	struct child_process rev_list = CHILD_PROCESS_INIT;
 	FILE *rev_list_in;
 	struct check_connected_options defaults = CHECK_CONNECTED_INIT;
+	struct strbuf mode = STRBUF_INIT;
 	const struct object_id *oid;
 	int err = 0;
 	struct packed_git *new_pack = NULL;
@@ -133,6 +156,9 @@ int check_connected(struct repository *repo,
 	if (opt->progress)
 		strvec_pushf(&rev_list.args, "--progress=%s",
 			     _("Checking connectivity"));
+	connectivity_check_mode(repo, &mode);
+	strvec_pushf(&rev_list.args, "--connectivity-check=%s", mode.buf);
+	strbuf_release(&mode);
 
 	rev_list.git_cmd = 1;
 	if (opt->env)