diff --git a/utils/autotailor b/utils/autotailor
index 3c3e994eaa..a71f44ed3f 100755
--- a/utils/autotailor
+++ b/utils/autotailor
@@ -300,6 +300,7 @@ class Tailoring:
         self.id = "xccdf_auto_tailoring_default"
         self.version = 1
         self.original_ds_filename = ""
+        self.use_relative_path = False
 
         self.profiles = []
 
@@ -319,8 +320,19 @@ class Tailoring:
         root.set("id", self.id)
 
         benchmark = ET.SubElement(root, "{%s}benchmark" % NS)
-        datastream_uri = pathlib.Path(
-            self.original_ds_filename).absolute().as_uri()
+        if self.use_relative_path:
+            # Preserve relative paths as-is, convert absolute paths to basename
+            ds_path = pathlib.Path(self.original_ds_filename)
+            if ds_path.is_absolute():
+                # Convert absolute path to basename for compatibility with layered products
+                datastream_uri = ds_path.name
+            else:
+                # Keep relative paths as provided by the user
+                datastream_uri = self.original_ds_filename
+        else:
+            # Use absolute URI (default behavior for backward compatibility)
+            datastream_uri = pathlib.Path(
+                self.original_ds_filename).absolute().as_uri()
         benchmark.set("href", datastream_uri)
 
         version = ET.SubElement(root, "{%s}version" % NS)
@@ -433,6 +445,10 @@ def get_parser():
         "-o", "--output", default="-",
         help="Where to save the tailoring file. If not supplied, write to "
         "standard output.")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--relative-path", action="store_true",
+        help="Use relative path (basename only) for the benchmark href instead of "
+        "absolute file:// URI.")
     return parser
 
 
@@ -447,6 +463,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     t = Tailoring()
     t.original_ds_filename = args.datastream
     t.reverse_dns = args.id_namespace
+    t.use_relative_path = args.relative_path
 
     if args.json_tailoring:
         t.import_json_tailoring(args.json_tailoring)