diff --git a/api b/api
index 6211699800..505f47f427 100755
--- a/api
+++ b/api
@@ -109,13 +109,16 @@ package_installed() { #exit 0 if $1 package is installed, otherwise exit 1
   grep "^Package: $package$" /var/lib/dpkg/status -A 1 | tail -n 1 | grep -q 'Status: install ok installed'
 }
 
-package_available() { #determine if the specified package-name exists in a repository
+package_available() { #determine if the specified package-name exists in a local repository for the current dpkg architecture
   local package="$1"
+  local arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)"
   [ -z "$package" ] && error "package_available(): no package name specified!"
   #using find and grep to do this is nearly instantaneous, rather than apt-cache which takes several seconds
   local IFS=$'\n'
   for file in $(find /var/lib/apt/lists -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "*_Packages") ;do
-    grep -q "^Package: $package$" "$file" && break
+    # get all package info up to the end of the stanza (end of stanza indicated by an empty line)
+    # check if any of the matching package info is for the current dpkg architecture
+    sed -n '/^Package: '"$package"'$/,/^$/p' "$file" | grep "^Architecture:" | grep -q "$arch\|all" && break
   done
 }