diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main.go b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
index 1514281..e1c9378 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/signal"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -13,7 +14,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 
 	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/pkg/progress"
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/ostree"
 
 	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/internal/blueprintload"
+	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/internal/olog"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -409,13 +410,8 @@ func cmdDescribeImg(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 }
 
 func run() error {
-	// images generates a lot of noisy logs a bunch of stuff to
-	// Debug/Info that is distracting the user (at least by
-	// default, like what repos being loaded)
-	//
-	// Disable for now until we can filter out the usless log
-	// messages.
-	logrus.SetOutput(io.Discard)
+	// Initialize console logger (stderr, no prefix)
+	log.SetFlags(0)
 
 	rootCmd := &cobra.Command{
 		Use:   "image-builder",
@@ -435,7 +431,7 @@ operating systems like Fedora, CentOS and RHEL with easy customizations support.
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringArray("extra-repo", nil, `Add an extra repository during build (will *not* be gpg checked and not be part of the final image)`)
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().StringArray("force-repo", nil, `Override the base repositories during build (these will not be part of the final image)`)
 	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String("output-dir", "", `Put output into the specified directory`)
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolP("verbose", "v", false, `Switch to verbose mode`)
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolP("verbose", "v", false, `Switch to verbose mode (more logging on stderr and verbose progress)`)
 	rootCmd.SetOut(osStdout)
 	rootCmd.SetErr(osStderr)
 
@@ -520,12 +516,21 @@ operating systems like Fedora, CentOS and RHEL with easy customizations support.
 
 	rootCmd.AddCommand(describeImgCmd)
 
+	verbose, err := rootCmd.PersistentFlags().GetBool("verbose")
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if verbose {
+		olog.SetDefault(log.New(os.Stderr, "", 0))
+		// XXX: add once images has olog support
+		//images_log.SetDefault(log.New(os.Stderr, "", 0))
+	}
+
 	return rootCmd.Execute()
 }
 
 func main() {
 	if err := run(); err != nil {
-		fmt.Fprintf(osStderr, "error: %s\n", err)
-		os.Exit(1)
+		log.Fatalf("error: %s\n", err)
 	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go b/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
index bb7bdb7..85623da 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main_test.go
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
@@ -30,11 +29,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/arch"
 )
 
-func init() {
-	// silence logrus by default, it is quite verbose
-	logrus.SetLevel(logrus.WarnLevel)
-}
-
 func TestListImagesNoArguments(t *testing.T) {
 	restore := main.MockNewRepoRegistry(testrepos.New)
 	defer restore()
diff --git a/internal/olog/package.go b/internal/olog/package.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9649fe7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/olog/package.go
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+// Package olog provides a simple wrapper around the standard log package
+// variable so logging statements are shorter. Instead of pkg.Logger.Printf one
+// can simply write olog.Printf.
+//
+// The name stands for "optional logger" because the output can be disabled by
+// setting the logger to nil or providing io.Discard as the output. This is
+// useful for user-configurable logging (e.g. --verbose flags for CLI apps).
+package olog
diff --git a/internal/olog/proxy.go b/internal/olog/proxy.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..580efb9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/olog/proxy.go
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+package olog
+
+import "io"
+
+// Print is a proxy for log.Print.
+func Print(v ...any) {
+	Default().Print(v...)
+}
+
+// Printf is a proxy for log.Printf.
+func Printf(format string, v ...any) {
+	Default().Printf(format, v...)
+}
+
+// Println is a proxy for log.Println.
+func Println(v ...any) {
+	Default().Println(v...)
+}
+
+// Fatal is a proxy for log.Fatal.
+func Fatal(v ...any) {
+	Default().Fatal(v...)
+}
+
+// Fatalf is a proxy for log.Fatalf.
+func Fatalf(format string, v ...any) {
+	Default().Fatalf(format, v...)
+}
+
+// Fatalln is a proxy for log.Fatalln.
+func Fatalln(v ...any) {
+	Default().Fatalln(v...)
+}
+
+// Panic is a proxy for log.Panic.
+func Panic(v ...any) {
+	Default().Panic(v...)
+}
+
+// Panicf is a proxy for log.Panicf.
+func Panicf(format string, v ...any) {
+	Default().Panicf(format, v...)
+}
+
+// Panicln is a proxy for log.Panicln.
+func Panicln(v ...any) {
+	Default().Panicln(v...)
+}
+
+// Writer is a proxy for log.Writer.
+func Writer() io.Writer {
+	return Default().Writer()
+}
+
+// Output is a proxy for log.Output.
+func Output(calldepth int, s string) error {
+	return Default().Output(calldepth+1, s)
+}
+
+// SetOutput is a proxy for log.SetOutput.
+func SetOutput(w io.Writer) {
+	Default().SetOutput(w)
+}
+
+// Flags is a proxy for log.Flags.
+func Flags() int {
+	return Default().Flags()
+}
+
+// SetFlags is a proxy for log.SetFlags.
+func SetFlags(flag int) {
+	Default().SetFlags(flag)
+}
+
+// Prefix is a proxy for log.Prefix.
+func Prefix() string {
+	return Default().Prefix()
+}
+
+// SetPrefix is a proxy for log.SetPrefix.
+func SetPrefix(prefix string) {
+	Default().SetPrefix(prefix)
+}
diff --git a/internal/olog/var.go b/internal/olog/var.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9881770
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/olog/var.go
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+package olog
+
+import (
+	"io"
+	"log"
+	"sync/atomic"
+)
+
+var logger atomic.Pointer[log.Logger]
+
+func init() {
+	SetDefault(nil)
+}
+
+// SetDefault sets the default logger to the provided logger. When nil is passed,
+// the default logger is set to a no-op logger that discards all log messages.
+func SetDefault(l *log.Logger) {
+	if l == nil {
+		logger.Store(log.New(io.Discard, "", 0))
+		return
+	}
+
+	logger.Store(l)
+}
+
+// Default returns the default logger. If no logger has been set, it returns a
+// no-op logger that discards all log messages.
+func Default() *log.Logger {
+	return logger.Load()
+}
diff --git a/pkg/progress/progress.go b/pkg/progress/progress.go
index 255d797..c32772c 100644
--- a/pkg/progress/progress.go
+++ b/pkg/progress/progress.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"strings"
@@ -14,7 +15,6 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/cheggaaa/pb/v3"
 	"github.com/mattn/go-isatty"
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/datasizes"
 	"github.com/osbuild/images/pkg/osbuild"
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ func (b *terminalProgressBar) Stop() {
 		// I cannot think of how this could happen, i.e. why
 		// closing would not work but lets be conservative -
 		// without a timeout we hang here forever
-		logrus.Warnf("no progress channel shutdown after 1sec")
+		log.Printf("WARNING: no progress channel shutdown after 1sec")
 	}
 	b.shutdownCh = nil
 	// This should never happen but be paranoid, this should
@@ -479,7 +479,7 @@ func runOSBuildWithProgress(pb ProgressBar, manifest []byte, exports []string, o
 		i := 0
 		for p := st.Progress; p != nil; p = p.SubProgress {
 			if err := pb.SetProgress(i, p.Message, p.Done, p.Total); err != nil {
-				logrus.Warnf("cannot set progress: %v", err)
+				log.Printf("WARNING: cannot set progress: %v", err)
 			}
 			i++
 		}
diff --git a/pkg/setup/setup.go b/pkg/setup/setup.go
index 6a93cc1..a25395e 100644
--- a/pkg/setup/setup.go
+++ b/pkg/setup/setup.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package setup
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -10,8 +11,6 @@ import (
 
 	"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
 
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
-
 	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/pkg/podmanutil"
 	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/pkg/util"
 )
@@ -136,7 +135,7 @@ func validateCanRunTargetArch(targetArch string) error {
 		// we could error here but in principle with a working qemu-user
 		// any arch should work so let's just warn. the common case
 		// (arm64/amd64) is covered properly
-		logrus.Warningf("cannot check architecture support for %v: no canary binary found", targetArch)
+		log.Printf("WARNING: cannot check architecture support for %v: no canary binary found", targetArch)
 		return nil
 	}
 	output, err := exec.Command(canaryCmd).CombinedOutput()
diff --git a/pkg/setup/setup_test.go b/pkg/setup/setup_test.go
index 41b5538..e3051a6 100644
--- a/pkg/setup/setup_test.go
+++ b/pkg/setup/setup_test.go
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@ package setup_test
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"fmt"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
 	"testing"
 
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 
 	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/pkg/setup"
@@ -23,11 +23,13 @@ func TestValidateCanRunTargetArchTrivial(t *testing.T) {
 
 func TestValidateCanRunTargetArchUnsupportedCanary(t *testing.T) {
 	var logbuf bytes.Buffer
-	logrus.SetOutput(&logbuf)
+	ow := log.Writer()
+	log.SetOutput(&logbuf)
+	defer log.SetOutput(ow)
 
 	err := setup.ValidateCanRunTargetArch("unsupported-arch")
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
-	assert.Contains(t, logbuf.String(), `level=warning msg="cannot check architecture support for unsupported-arch: no canary binary found"`)
+	assert.Contains(t, logbuf.String(), `cannot check architecture support for unsupported-arch: no canary binary found`)
 }
 
 func makeFakeBinary(t *testing.T, binary, content string) {
@@ -43,7 +45,9 @@ func makeFakeCanary(t *testing.T, content string) {
 
 func TestValidateCanRunTargetArchHappy(t *testing.T) {
 	var logbuf bytes.Buffer
-	logrus.SetOutput(&logbuf)
+	ow := log.Writer()
+	log.SetOutput(&logbuf)
+	defer log.SetOutput(ow)
 
 	makeFakeCanary(t, "#!/bin/sh\necho ok")
 
diff --git a/pkg/util/util.go b/pkg/util/util.go
index 04e1c60..4b73314 100644
--- a/pkg/util/util.go
+++ b/pkg/util/util.go
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"os/exec"
 	"strings"
 
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
+	"github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli/internal/olog"
 )
 
 // IsMountpoint checks if the target path is a mount point
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ func IsMountpoint(path string) bool {
 // Synchronously invoke a command, propagating stdout and stderr
 // to the current process's stdout and stderr
 func RunCmdSync(cmdName string, args ...string) error {
-	logrus.Debugf("Running: %s %s", cmdName, strings.Join(args, " "))
+	olog.Printf("Running: %s %s", cmdName, strings.Join(args, " "))
 	cmd := exec.Command(cmdName, args...)
 	cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
 	cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr