diff --git a/android/config.go b/android/config.go
index e0b661b..666e721 100644
--- a/android/config.go
+++ b/android/config.go
@@ -905,8 +905,16 @@
 		return c.PlatformSdkVersion()
 	}
 	codename := c.PlatformSdkCodename()
+	hostOnlyBuild := c.productVariables.DeviceArch == nil
 	if codename == "" {
-		return NoneApiLevel
+		// There are some host-only builds (those are invoked by build-prebuilts.sh) which
+		// don't set platform sdk codename. Platform sdk codename makes sense only when we
+		// are building the platform. So we don't enforce the below panic for the host-only
+		// builds.
+		if hostOnlyBuild {
+			return NoneApiLevel
+		}
+		panic("Platform_sdk_codename must be set")
 	}
 	if codename == "REL" {
 		panic("Platform_sdk_codename should not be REL when Platform_sdk_final is true")