diff --git a/lib/src/cli.rs b/lib/src/cli.rs
index 2937d317..d41781e4 100644
--- a/lib/src/cli.rs
+++ b/lib/src/cli.rs
@@ -431,6 +431,7 @@ async fn upgrade(opts: UpgradeOpts) -> Result<()> {
         }
     } else {
         let fetched = crate::deploy::pull(sysroot, imgref, opts.quiet).await?;
+        let kargs = crate::kargs::get_kargs(repo, &booted_deployment, fetched.as_ref())?;
         let staged_digest = staged_image.as_ref().map(|s| s.image_digest.as_str());
         let fetched_digest = fetched.manifest_digest.as_str();
         tracing::debug!("staged: {staged_digest:?}");
@@ -452,7 +453,10 @@ async fn upgrade(opts: UpgradeOpts) -> Result<()> {
             println!("No update available.")
         } else {
             let osname = booted_deployment.osname();
-            crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &osname, &fetched, &spec).await?;
+            let mut opts = ostree::SysrootDeployTreeOpts::default();
+            let kargs: Vec<&str> = kargs.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect();
+            opts.override_kernel_argv = Some(kargs.as_slice());
+            crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &osname, &fetched, &spec, Some(opts)).await?;
             changed = true;
             if let Some(prev) = booted_image.as_ref() {
                 if let Some(fetched_manifest) = fetched.get_manifest(repo)? {
@@ -525,6 +529,7 @@ async fn switch(opts: SwitchOpts) -> Result<()> {
     let new_spec = RequiredHostSpec::from_spec(&new_spec)?;
 
     let fetched = crate::deploy::pull(sysroot, &target, opts.quiet).await?;
+    let kargs = crate::kargs::get_kargs(repo, &booted_deployment, fetched.as_ref())?;
 
     if !opts.retain {
         // By default, we prune the previous ostree ref so it will go away after later upgrades
@@ -538,7 +543,10 @@ async fn switch(opts: SwitchOpts) -> Result<()> {
     }
 
     let stateroot = booted_deployment.osname();
-    crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &stateroot, &fetched, &new_spec).await?;
+    let mut opts = ostree::SysrootDeployTreeOpts::default();
+    let kargs: Vec<&str> = kargs.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect();
+    opts.override_kernel_argv = Some(kargs.as_slice());
+    crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &stateroot, &fetched, &new_spec, Some(opts)).await?;
 
     Ok(())
 }
@@ -583,11 +591,16 @@ async fn edit(opts: EditOpts) -> Result<()> {
     }
 
     let fetched = crate::deploy::pull(sysroot, new_spec.image, opts.quiet).await?;
+    let repo = &sysroot.repo();
+    let kargs = crate::kargs::get_kargs(repo, &booted_deployment, fetched.as_ref())?;
 
     // TODO gc old layers here
 
     let stateroot = booted_deployment.osname();
-    crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &stateroot, &fetched, &new_spec).await?;
+    let mut opts = ostree::SysrootDeployTreeOpts::default();
+    let kargs: Vec<&str> = kargs.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect();
+    opts.override_kernel_argv = Some(kargs.as_slice());
+    crate::deploy::stage(sysroot, &stateroot, &fetched, &new_spec, Some(opts)).await?;
 
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/lib/src/deploy.rs b/lib/src/deploy.rs
index 900ca839..9f19250a 100644
--- a/lib/src/deploy.rs
+++ b/lib/src/deploy.rs
@@ -278,8 +278,10 @@ async fn deploy(
     stateroot: &str,
     image: &ImageState,
     origin: &glib::KeyFile,
+    opts: Option<ostree::SysrootDeployTreeOpts<'_>>,
 ) -> Result<()> {
     let stateroot = Some(stateroot);
+    let opts = opts.unwrap_or_default();
     // Copy to move into thread
     let cancellable = gio::Cancellable::NONE;
     let _new_deployment = sysroot.stage_tree_with_options(
@@ -287,7 +289,7 @@ async fn deploy(
         image.ostree_commit.as_str(),
         Some(origin),
         merge_deployment,
-        &Default::default(),
+        &opts,
         cancellable,
     )?;
     Ok(())
@@ -312,6 +314,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn stage(
     stateroot: &str,
     image: &ImageState,
     spec: &RequiredHostSpec<'_>,
+    opts: Option<ostree::SysrootDeployTreeOpts<'_>>,
 ) -> Result<()> {
     let merge_deployment = sysroot.merge_deployment(Some(stateroot));
     let origin = origin_from_imageref(spec.image)?;
@@ -321,6 +324,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn stage(
         stateroot,
         image,
         &origin,
+        opts,
     )
     .await?;
     crate::deploy::cleanup(sysroot).await?;
diff --git a/lib/src/kargs.rs b/lib/src/kargs.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5051886d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/src/kargs.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,168 @@
+use anyhow::Ok;
+use anyhow::Result;
+
+use crate::deploy::ImageState;
+use ostree::gio;
+use ostree_ext::ostree;
+use ostree_ext::ostree::Deployment;
+use ostree_ext::prelude::Cast;
+use ostree_ext::prelude::FileEnumeratorExt;
+use ostree_ext::prelude::FileExt;
+
+use serde::Deserialize;
+
+#[derive(Deserialize)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "kebab-case", deny_unknown_fields)]
+struct Config {
+    kargs: Vec<String>,
+    match_architectures: Option<Vec<String>>,
+}
+
+/// Compute the kernel arguments for the new deployment. This starts from the booted
+/// karg, but applies the diff between the bootc karg files in /usr/lib/bootc/kargs.d
+/// between the booted deployment and the new one.
+pub(crate) fn get_kargs(
+    repo: &ostree::Repo,
+    booted_deployment: &Deployment,
+    fetched: &ImageState,
+) -> Result<Vec<String>> {
+    let cancellable = gio::Cancellable::NONE;
+    let mut kargs: Vec<String> = vec![];
+    let sys_arch = std::env::consts::ARCH.to_string();
+
+    // Get the running kargs of the booted system
+    if let Some(bootconfig) = ostree::Deployment::bootconfig(booted_deployment) {
+        if let Some(options) = ostree::BootconfigParser::get(&bootconfig, "options") {
+            let options: Vec<&str> = options.split_whitespace().collect();
+            let mut options: Vec<String> = options.into_iter().map(|s| s.to_string()).collect();
+            kargs.append(&mut options);
+        }
+    };
+
+    // Get the kargs in kargs.d of the booted system
+    let mut existing_kargs: Vec<String> = vec![];
+    let fragments = liboverdrop::scan(&["/usr/lib"], "bootc/kargs.d", &["toml"], true);
+    for (_name, path) in fragments {
+        let s = std::fs::read_to_string(&path)?;
+        let mut parsed_kargs = parse_file(s.clone(), sys_arch.clone())?;
+        existing_kargs.append(&mut parsed_kargs);
+    }
+
+    // Get the kargs in kargs.d of the pending image
+    let mut remote_kargs: Vec<String> = vec![];
+    let (fetched_tree, _) = repo.read_commit(fetched.ostree_commit.as_str(), cancellable)?;
+    let fetched_tree = fetched_tree.resolve_relative_path("/usr/lib/bootc/kargs.d");
+    let fetched_tree = fetched_tree
+        .downcast::<ostree::RepoFile>()
+        .expect("downcast");
+    if !fetched_tree.query_exists(cancellable) {
+        // if the kargs.d directory does not exist in the fetched image, return the existing kargs
+        kargs.append(&mut existing_kargs);
+        return Ok(kargs);
+    }
+    let queryattrs = "standard::name,standard::type";
+    let queryflags = gio::FileQueryInfoFlags::NOFOLLOW_SYMLINKS;
+    let fetched_iter = fetched_tree.enumerate_children(queryattrs, queryflags, cancellable)?;
+    while let Some(fetched_info) = fetched_iter.next_file(cancellable)? {
+        // only read and parse the file if it is a toml file
+        let name = fetched_info.name();
+        if let Some(name) = name.to_str() {
+            if name.ends_with(".toml") {
+                let fetched_child = fetched_iter.child(&fetched_info);
+                let fetched_child = fetched_child
+                    .downcast::<ostree::RepoFile>()
+                    .expect("downcast");
+                fetched_child.ensure_resolved()?;
+                let fetched_contents_checksum = fetched_child.checksum();
+                let f =
+                    ostree::Repo::load_file(repo, fetched_contents_checksum.as_str(), cancellable)?;
+                let file_content = f.0;
+                let mut reader =
+                    ostree_ext::prelude::InputStreamExtManual::into_read(file_content.unwrap());
+                let s = std::io::read_to_string(&mut reader)?;
+                let mut parsed_kargs = parse_file(s.clone(), sys_arch.clone())?;
+                remote_kargs.append(&mut parsed_kargs);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    // get the diff between the existing and remote kargs
+    let mut added_kargs: Vec<String> = remote_kargs
+        .clone()
+        .into_iter()
+        .filter(|item| !existing_kargs.contains(item))
+        .collect();
+    let removed_kargs: Vec<String> = existing_kargs
+        .clone()
+        .into_iter()
+        .filter(|item| !remote_kargs.contains(item))
+        .collect();
+
+    tracing::debug!(
+        "kargs: added={:?} removed={:?}",
+        &added_kargs,
+        removed_kargs
+    );
+
+    // apply the diff to the system kargs
+    kargs.retain(|x| !removed_kargs.contains(x));
+    kargs.append(&mut added_kargs);
+
+    Ok(kargs)
+}
+
+pub fn parse_file(file_content: String, sys_arch: String) -> Result<Vec<String>> {
+    let mut de: Config = toml::from_str(&file_content)?;
+    let mut parsed_kargs: Vec<String> = vec![];
+    // if arch specified, apply kargs only if the arch matches
+    // if arch not specified, apply kargs unconditionally
+    match de.match_architectures {
+        None => parsed_kargs = de.kargs,
+        Some(match_architectures) => {
+            if match_architectures.contains(&sys_arch) {
+                parsed_kargs.append(&mut de.kargs);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(parsed_kargs)
+}
+
+#[test]
+/// Verify that kargs are only applied to supported architectures
+fn test_arch() {
+    // no arch specified, kargs ensure that kargs are applied unconditionally
+    let sys_arch = "x86_64".to_string();
+    let file_content = r##"kargs = ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]"##.to_string();
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]);
+    let sys_arch = "aarch64".to_string();
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]);
+
+    // one arch matches and one doesn't, ensure that kargs are only applied for the matching arch
+    let sys_arch = "aarch64".to_string();
+    let file_content = r##"kargs = ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]
+match-architectures = ["x86_64"]
+"##
+    .to_string();
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, [] as [String; 0]);
+    let file_content = r##"kargs = ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]
+match-architectures = ["aarch64"]
+"##
+    .to_string();
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]);
+
+    // multiple arch specified, ensure that kargs are applied to both archs
+    let sys_arch = "x86_64".to_string();
+    let file_content = r##"kargs = ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]
+match-architectures = ["x86_64", "aarch64"]
+"##
+    .to_string();
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]);
+    std::env::set_var("ARCH", "aarch64");
+    let parsed_kargs = parse_file(file_content.clone(), sys_arch.clone()).unwrap();
+    assert_eq!(parsed_kargs, ["console=tty0", "nosmt"]);
+}
diff --git a/lib/src/lib.rs b/lib/src/lib.rs
index d7b5e1cc..f2f2c60d 100644
--- a/lib/src/lib.rs
+++ b/lib/src/lib.rs
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ pub mod cli;
 pub(crate) mod deploy;
 pub(crate) mod generator;
 pub(crate) mod journal;
+pub(crate) mod kargs;
 mod lints;
 mod lsm;
 pub(crate) mod metadata;