diff --git a/src/cmd-buildextend-metal b/src/cmd-buildextend-metal
index ff9f5990d0..6827ddc57b 100755
--- a/src/cmd-buildextend-metal
+++ b/src/cmd-buildextend-metal
@@ -139,6 +139,12 @@ cat image-default.json "${image_json}" | jq -s add > image-configured.json
 # We do some extra handling of the rootfs here; it feeds into size estimation.
 rootfs_type=$(jq -re .rootfs < image-configured.json)
 
+deploy_container=
+container_imgref=$(jq -r '.["container-imgref"]//""' < image-configured.json)
+if test -n "${container_imgref}" || jq -re '.["deploy-via-container"]' < image-configured.json >/dev/null; then
+    deploy_container=ostree-unverified-image:oci-archive:$builddir/$(meta_key images.ostree.path)
+fi
+
 # fs-verity requires block size = page size. We need to take that into account
 # in the disk size estimation due to higher fragmentation on larger blocks.
 BLKSIZE=""
@@ -204,6 +210,8 @@ cat >image-dynamic.json << EOF
     "osname": "${name}",
     "buildid": "${build}",
     "imgid": "${img}",
+    "deploy-container": "${deploy_container}",
+    "container-imgref": "${container_imgref}",
     "ostree-commit": "${commit}",
     "ostree-ref": "${ref}",
     "ostree-repo": "${ostree_repo}"
diff --git a/src/create_disk.sh b/src/create_disk.sh
index e83784f3eb..14339c3144 100755
--- a/src/create_disk.sh
+++ b/src/create_disk.sh
@@ -99,6 +99,8 @@ commit=$(getconfig "ostree-commit")
 ref=$(getconfig "ostree-ref")
 # We support not setting a remote name (used by RHCOS)
 remote_name=$(getconfig_def "ostree-remote" "")
+deploy_container=$(getconfig "deploy-container" "")
+container_imgref=$(getconfig "container-imgref" "")
 os_name=$(getconfig "osname")
 rootfs_size=$(getconfig "rootfs-size")
 buildid=$(getconfig "buildid")
@@ -247,27 +249,47 @@ fi
 # Now that we have the basic disk layout, initialize the basic
 # OSTree layout, load in the ostree commit and deploy it.
 ostree admin init-fs --modern $rootfs
+# Initialize the "stateroot"
+ostree admin os-init "$os_name" --sysroot $rootfs
+
+# Propagate flags into target repository
 if [ "${rootfs_type}" = "ext4verity" ]; then
     ostree config --repo=$rootfs/ostree/repo set ex-fsverity.required 'true'
 fi
-time ostree pull-local --repo $rootfs/ostree/repo "$ostree" "$commit"
-if test -n "${remote_name}"; then
-    deploy_ref="${remote_name}:${ref}"
-    ostree refs --repo $rootfs/ostree/repo --create "${deploy_ref}" "${commit}"
-else
-    deploy_ref=$commit
-fi
-ostree admin os-init "$os_name" --sysroot $rootfs
+
+# Compute kargs
 # Note that $ignition_firstboot is interpreted by grub at boot time,
 # *not* the shell here.  Hence the backslash escape.
 allkargs="$extrakargs \$ignition_firstboot"
-kargsargs=""
-for karg in $allkargs
-do
-	kargsargs+="--karg-append=$karg "
-done
-ostree admin deploy "${deploy_ref}" --sysroot $rootfs --os "$os_name" $kargsargs
 
+if test -n "${deploy_container}"; then
+    kargsargs=""
+    for karg in $allkargs
+    do
+        kargsargs+="--karg=$karg "
+    done
+    rpm-ostree ex-container image deploy --imgref "${deploy_container}" \
+        ${container_imgref:+--target-imgref $container_imgref} \
+        --stateroot "$os_name" --sysroot $rootfs $kargsargs
+else
+    # Pull the commit
+    time ostree pull-local --repo $rootfs/ostree/repo "$ostree" "$commit"
+    # Deploy it, using an optional remote prefix
+    if test -n "${remote_name}"; then
+        deploy_ref="${remote_name}:${ref}"
+        ostree refs --repo $rootfs/ostree/repo --create "${deploy_ref}" "${commit}"
+    else
+        deploy_ref=$commit
+    fi
+    kargsargs=""
+    for karg in $allkargs
+    do
+        kargsargs+="--karg-append=$karg "
+    done
+    ostree admin deploy "${deploy_ref}" --sysroot $rootfs --os "$os_name" $kargsargs
+fi
+# Note that at the current time, this only supports deploying non-layered
+# container images; xref https://github.com/ostreedev/ostree-rs-ext/issues/143
 deploy_root="$rootfs/ostree/deploy/${os_name}/deploy/${commit}.0"
 test -d "${deploy_root}"
 
diff --git a/src/image-default.yaml b/src/image-default.yaml
index 669425692d..4b871507a1 100644
--- a/src/image-default.yaml
+++ b/src/image-default.yaml
@@ -2,3 +2,7 @@
 bootfs: "ext4"
 rootfs: "xfs"
 grub-script: "/usr/lib/coreos-assembler/grub.cfg"
+# True if we should use `rpm-ostree ex-container image deploy`
+deploy-via-container: false
+# Set this to a target container reference, e.g. ostree-unverified-registry:quay.io/example/os:latest
+# container-imgref: ""