diff --git a/cmd/image-builder/main.go b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
index 2cac592..b0d5d9a 100644
--- a/cmd/image-builder/main.go
+++ b/cmd/image-builder/main.go
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ operating sytsems like centos and RHEL with easy customizations support.`,
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("ostree-ref", "", `OSTREE reference`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("ostree-parent", "", `OSTREE parent`)
 	manifestCmd.Flags().String("ostree-url", "", `OSTREE url`)
-	manifestCmd.Flags().Bool("use-librepo", false, `(experimental) use librepo to download packages, needs new osbuild`)
+	manifestCmd.Flags().Bool("use-librepo", true, `use librepo to download packages (disable if you use old versions of osbuild)`)
 	rootCmd.AddCommand(manifestCmd)
 
 	buildCmd := &cobra.Command{
diff --git a/image-builder-cli.spec b/image-builder-cli.spec
index 39c96c5..11bbde6 100644
--- a/image-builder-cli.spec
+++ b/image-builder-cli.spec
@@ -3,8 +3,12 @@
 %bcond_with tests
 %bcond_with relax_requires
 
-# The minimum required osbuild version
-%global min_osbuild_version 129
+# The minimum required osbuild version, note that this used to be 129
+# but got bumped to 138 for librepo support which is not strictly
+# required. So if this needs backport to places where there is no
+# recent osbuild available we could simply make --use-librepo false
+# and go back to 129.
+%global min_osbuild_version 138
 
 %global goipath         github.com/osbuild/image-builder-cli