diff --git a/llama_stack/cli/stack/_build.py b/llama_stack/cli/stack/_build.py
index c2a19c070..25a234bbe 100644
--- a/llama_stack/cli/stack/_build.py
+++ b/llama_stack/cli/stack/_build.py
@@ -206,6 +206,8 @@ def run_stack_build_command(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
                 contents = yaml.safe_load(f)
                 contents = replace_env_vars(contents)
                 build_config = BuildConfig(**contents)
+                if args.image_type:
+                    build_config.image_type = args.image_type
             except Exception as e:
                 cprint(
                     f"Could not parse config file {args.config}: {e}",
diff --git a/llama_stack/cli/stack/build.py b/llama_stack/cli/stack/build.py
index 93e7d9b22..2c402beeb 100644
--- a/llama_stack/cli/stack/build.py
+++ b/llama_stack/cli/stack/build.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class StackBuild(Subcommand):
             type=str,
             help="Image Type to use for the build. If not specified, will use the image type from the template config.",
             choices=[e.value for e in ImageType],
-            default=ImageType.CONDA.value,
+            default=None,  # no default so we can detect if a user specified --image-type and override image_type in the config
         )
 
         self.parser.add_argument(