diff --git a/builtin/revert.c b/builtin/revert.c
index ada51e46b9f261..f84c253f4c6f65 100644
--- a/builtin/revert.c
+++ b/builtin/revert.c
@@ -116,8 +116,6 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, struct replay_opts *opts)
 			N_("option for merge strategy"), option_parse_x),
 		{ OPTION_STRING, 'S', "gpg-sign", &opts->gpg_sign, N_("key-id"),
 		  N_("GPG sign commit"), PARSE_OPT_OPTARG, NULL, (intptr_t) "" },
-		OPT_BOOL(0, "reference", &opts->commit_use_reference,
-			 N_("use the 'reference' format to refer to commits")),
 		OPT_END()
 	};
 	struct option *options = base_options;
@@ -132,6 +130,13 @@ static int run_sequencer(int argc, const char **argv, struct replay_opts *opts)
 			OPT_END(),
 		};
 		options = parse_options_concat(options, cp_extra);
+	} else if (opts->action == REPLAY_REVERT) {
+		struct option cp_extra[] = {
+			OPT_BOOL(0, "reference", &opts->commit_use_reference,
+				 N_("use the 'reference' format to refer to commits")),
+			OPT_END(),
+		};
+		options = parse_options_concat(options, cp_extra);
 	}
 
 	argc = parse_options(argc, argv, NULL, options, usage_str,
diff --git a/sequencer.c b/sequencer.c
index 96fec6ef6d908d..4b66a1f79c75f5 100644
--- a/sequencer.c
+++ b/sequencer.c
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ static int git_sequencer_config(const char *k, const char *v, void *cb)
 		return ret;
 	}
 
-	if (!strcmp(k, "revert.reference"))
+	if (opts->action == REPLAY_REVERT && !strcmp(k, "revert.reference"))
 		opts->commit_use_reference = git_config_bool(k, v);
 
 	status = git_gpg_config(k, v, NULL);
diff --git a/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh b/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
index a386ae9e885db4..fb4466599bc834 100755
--- a/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
+++ b/t/t3501-revert-cherry-pick.sh
@@ -205,4 +205,10 @@ test_expect_success 'identification of reverted commit (revert.reference)' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'cherry-pick is unaware of --reference (for now)' '
+	test_when_finished "git reset --hard" &&
+	test_must_fail git cherry-pick --reference HEAD 2>actual &&
+	grep "^usage: git cherry-pick" actual
+'
+
 test_done