diff --git a/src/ostree/ot-builtin-commit.c b/src/ostree/ot-builtin-commit.c
index c24e06c7..7c81712a 100644
--- a/src/ostree/ot-builtin-commit.c
+++ b/src/ostree/ot-builtin-commit.c
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ static char *opt_branch;
 static char *opt_statoverride_file;
 static char *opt_skiplist_file;
 static char **opt_metadata_strings;
+static char **opt_metadata_variants;
 static char **opt_detached_metadata_strings;
 static gboolean opt_link_checkout_speedup;
 static gboolean opt_skip_if_unchanged;
@@ -92,6 +93,7 @@ static GOptionEntry options[] = {
   { "bind-ref", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING_ARRAY, &opt_bind_refs, "Add a ref to ref binding commit metadata", "BRANCH" },
   { "tree", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING_ARRAY, &opt_trees, "Overlay the given argument as a tree", "dir=PATH or tar=TARFILE or ref=COMMIT" },
   { "add-metadata-string", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING_ARRAY, &opt_metadata_strings, "Add a key/value pair to metadata", "KEY=VALUE" },
+  { "add-metadata", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING_ARRAY, &opt_metadata_variants, "Add a key/value pair to metadata, where the KEY is a string, an VALUE is g_variant_parse() formatted", "KEY=VALUE" },
   { "add-detached-metadata-string", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING_ARRAY, &opt_detached_metadata_strings, "Add a key/value pair to detached metadata", "KEY=VALUE" },
   { "owner-uid", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &opt_owner_uid, "Set file ownership user id", "UID" },
   { "owner-gid", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &opt_owner_gid, "Set file ownership group id", "GID" },
@@ -321,13 +323,11 @@ commit_editor (OstreeRepo     *repo,
 }
 
 static gboolean
-parse_keyvalue_strings (char             **strings,
-                        GVariant         **out_metadata,
+parse_keyvalue_strings (GVariantBuilder   *builder,
+                        char             **strings,
+                        gboolean           is_gvariant_print,
                         GError           **error)
 {
-  g_autoptr(GVariantBuilder) builder =
-    g_variant_builder_new (G_VARIANT_TYPE ("a{sv}"));
-
   for (char ** iter = strings; *iter; iter++)
     {
       const char *s = *iter;
@@ -335,11 +335,19 @@ parse_keyvalue_strings (char             **strings,
       if (!eq)
         return glnx_throw (error, "Missing '=' in KEY=VALUE metadata '%s'", s);
       g_autofree char *key = g_strndup (s, eq - s);
-      g_variant_builder_add (builder, "{sv}", key,
-                             g_variant_new_string (eq + 1));
+      if (is_gvariant_print)
+        {
+          g_autoptr(GVariant) value = g_variant_parse (NULL, eq + 1, NULL, NULL, error);
+          if (!value)
+            return glnx_prefix_error (error, "Parsing %s", s);
+
+          g_variant_builder_add (builder, "{sv}", key, value);
+        }
+      else
+        g_variant_builder_add (builder, "{sv}", key,
+                               g_variant_new_string (eq + 1));
     }
 
-  *out_metadata = g_variant_ref_sink (g_variant_builder_end (builder));
   return TRUE;
 }
 
@@ -458,17 +466,31 @@ ostree_builtin_commit (int argc, char **argv, OstreeCommandInvocation *invocatio
         goto out;
     }
 
-  if (opt_metadata_strings)
+  if (opt_metadata_strings || opt_metadata_variants)
     {
-      if (!parse_keyvalue_strings (opt_metadata_strings,
-                                   &metadata, error))
+      g_autoptr(GVariantBuilder) builder =
+        g_variant_builder_new (G_VARIANT_TYPE ("a{sv}"));
+
+      if (opt_metadata_strings &&
+          !parse_keyvalue_strings (builder, opt_metadata_strings, FALSE, error))
+          goto out;
+
+      if (opt_metadata_variants &&
+          !parse_keyvalue_strings (builder, opt_metadata_variants, TRUE, error))
         goto out;
+
+      metadata = g_variant_ref_sink (g_variant_builder_end (builder));
     }
+
   if (opt_detached_metadata_strings)
     {
-      if (!parse_keyvalue_strings (opt_detached_metadata_strings,
-                                   &detached_metadata, error))
+      g_autoptr(GVariantBuilder) builder =
+        g_variant_builder_new (G_VARIANT_TYPE ("a{sv}"));
+
+      if (!parse_keyvalue_strings (builder, opt_detached_metadata_strings, FALSE, error))
         goto out;
+
+      detached_metadata = g_variant_ref_sink (g_variant_builder_end (builder));
     }
 
   if (!(opt_branch || opt_orphan))
diff --git a/tests/basic-test.sh b/tests/basic-test.sh
index d7c5425c..e1af66cc 100644
--- a/tests/basic-test.sh
+++ b/tests/basic-test.sh
@@ -751,12 +751,16 @@ $OSTREE commit ${COMMIT_ARGS} -s sometest -b test2 checkout-test2
 echo "ok commit with directory filename"
 
 cd $test_tmpdir/checkout-test2
-$OSTREE commit ${COMMIT_ARGS} -b test2 -s "Metadata string" --add-metadata-string=FOO=BAR --add-metadata-string=KITTENS=CUTE --add-detached-metadata-string=SIGNATURE=HANCOCK --tree=ref=test2
+$OSTREE commit ${COMMIT_ARGS} -b test2 -s "Metadata string" --add-metadata-string=FOO=BAR \
+        --add-metadata-string=KITTENS=CUTE --add-detached-metadata-string=SIGNATURE=HANCOCK \
+        --add-metadata=SOMENUM='uint64 42' --tree=ref=test2
 cd ${test_tmpdir}
 $OSTREE show --print-metadata-key=FOO test2 > test2-meta
 assert_file_has_content test2-meta "BAR"
 $OSTREE show --print-metadata-key=KITTENS test2 > test2-meta
 assert_file_has_content test2-meta "CUTE"
+$OSTREE show --print-metadata-key=SOMENUM test2 > test2-meta
+assert_file_has_content test2-meta "uint64 3026418949592973312"
 $OSTREE show --print-detached-metadata-key=SIGNATURE test2 > test2-meta
 assert_file_has_content test2-meta "HANCOCK"
 echo "ok metadata commit with strings"