diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b04db07..9fc4df4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -64,6 +64,10 @@ $ sudo image-builder build qcow2 --distro centos-9
 this will create a directory `centos-9-qcow2-x86_64` under which the
 output is stored.
 
+With the `--extra-artifacts=manifest` an
+[osbuild](https://github.com/osbuild/osbuild) manifest will be
+placed in the output directory too.
+
 ### Blueprints
 
 Blueprints are supported, first create a `config.toml` and put e.g.
diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/build.go b/cmd/image-builder/build.go
index 2b7e156..26b6151 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/build.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/build.go
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 package main
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
+	"os"
+	"path/filepath"
+
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/imagefilter"
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/osbuild"
 )
@@ -8,6 +12,8 @@ import (
 type buildOptions struct {
 	OutputDir string
 	StoreDir  string
+
+	WriteManifest bool
 }
 
 func buildImage(res *imagefilter.Result, osbuildManifest []byte, opts *buildOptions) error {
@@ -18,7 +24,13 @@ func buildImage(res *imagefilter.Result, osbuildManifest []byte, opts *buildOpti
 	// XXX: support output filename via commandline (c.f.
 	//   https://github.com/osbuild/images/pull/1039)
 	if opts.OutputDir == "" {
-		opts.OutputDir = outputDirFor(res)
+		opts.OutputDir = outputNameFor(res)
+	}
+	if opts.WriteManifest {
+		p := filepath.Join(opts.OutputDir, fmt.Sprintf("%s.osbuild-manifest.json", outputNameFor(res)))
+		if err := os.WriteFile(p, osbuildManifest, 0644); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
 	}
 
 	// XXX: support stremaing via images/pkg/osbuild/monitor.go
diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main.go b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
index a0b9dff..83b1249 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"slices"
 
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ var (
 )
 
 // generate the default output directory name for the given image
-func outputDirFor(img *imagefilter.Result) string {
+func outputNameFor(img *imagefilter.Result) string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s-%s", img.Distro.Name(), img.ImgType.Name(), img.Arch.Name())
 }
 
@@ -158,6 +159,10 @@ func cmdBuild(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
+	extraArtifacts, err := cmd.Flags().GetStringArray("extra-artifacts")
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 
 	var mf bytes.Buffer
 	// XXX: check env here, i.e. if user is root and osbuild is installed
@@ -172,8 +177,9 @@ func cmdBuild(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 	}
 
 	buildOpts := &buildOptions{
-		OutputDir: outputDir,
-		StoreDir:  storeDir,
+		OutputDir:     outputDir,
+		StoreDir:      storeDir,
+		WriteManifest: slices.Contains(extraArtifacts, "manifest"),
 	}
 	return buildImage(res, mf.Bytes(), buildOpts)
 }
@@ -195,7 +201,7 @@ operating sytsems like centos and RHEL with easy customizations support.`,
 	}
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String("datadir", "", `Override the default data direcotry for e.g. custom repositories/*.json data`)
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String("output-dir", "", `Put output into the specified direcotry`)
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringArray("extra-artifacts", nil, `Export extra artifacts to the output dir (e.g. "sbom")`)
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringArray("extra-artifacts", nil, `Export extra artifacts to the output dir (supported: "sbom","manifest", can be given multiple times)`)
 	rootCmd.SetOut(osStdout)
 	rootCmd.SetErr(osStderr)
 
diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go b/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
index 5023574..497abce 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
@@ -394,6 +394,41 @@ func TestBuildIntegrationSwitchOutputDir(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "some-output-dir", osbuildCall[outputDirPos+1])
 }
 
+func TestBuildIntegrationExtraArtifactsManifest(t *testing.T) {
+	if testing.Short() {
+		t.Skip("manifest generation takes a while")
+	}
+	if !hasDepsolveDnf() {
+		t.Skip("no osbuild-depsolve-dnf binary found")
+	}
+
+	restore := main.MockNewRepoRegistry(testrepos.New)
+	defer restore()
+
+	outputDir := t.TempDir()
+	restore = main.MockOsArgs([]string{
+		"build",
+		"qcow2",
+		"--distro", "centos-9",
+		"--store", outputDir,
+		"--extra-artifacts", "manifest",
+		"--output-dir", outputDir,
+	})
+	defer restore()
+
+	script := `cat - > "$0".stdin`
+	fakeOsbuildCmd := testutil.MockCommand(t, "osbuild", script)
+	defer fakeOsbuildCmd.Restore()
+
+	err := main.Run()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+
+	manifest, err := filepath.Glob(filepath.Join(outputDir, "*.osbuild-manifest.json"))
+	assert.Equal(t, len(manifest), 1)
+	assert.Equal(t, filepath.Join(outputDir, "centos-9-qcow2-x86_64.osbuild-manifest.json"), manifest[0])
+
+}
+
 func TestBuildIntegrationErrors(t *testing.T) {
 	if testing.Short() {
 		t.Skip("manifest generation takes a while")
diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/manifest.go b/cmd/image-builder/manifest.go
index 414fdd3..eb8fc83 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/manifest.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/manifest.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func generateManifest(dataDir string, img *imagefilter.Result, output io.Writer,
 	if slices.Contains(opts.ExtraArtifacts, "sbom") {
 		outputDir := opts.OutputDir
 		if outputDir == "" {
-			outputDir = outputDirFor(img)
+			outputDir = outputNameFor(img)
 		}
 		if err := os.MkdirAll(outputDir, 0755); err != nil {
 			return err