diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b5a14185..2cdb0787 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -137,6 +137,7 @@ The most important environment variables are:
   - `HOOK_LK_CONTAINERS_OCI_BASE`: OCI base coordinates for the LinuxKit containers.
   - `CACHE_DIR`: directory where the build system will cache downloaded files. Relative to the project root.
   - `USE_LATEST_BUILT_KERNEL`: set this to `yes` to use the latest built kernel from `quay.io/tinkerbell/hook-kernel`.
+  - `LINUXKIT_ISO`: set this to `yes` to build an ISO image instead of a kernel and initrd.
 - exclusively for the `qemu` command:
   - `TINK_SERVER=<ip>`: the IP address of the Tinkerbell GRPC server. No default.
   - `MAC=<mac>`: the MAC address of the machine that will be provisioned. No default.
diff --git a/bash/linuxkit.sh b/bash/linuxkit.sh
index 5f053256..b97f416d 100644
--- a/bash/linuxkit.sh
+++ b/bash/linuxkit.sh
@@ -83,6 +83,26 @@ function linuxkit_build() {
 	declare lk_cache_dir="${CACHE_DIR}/linuxkit"
 	mkdir -p "${lk_cache_dir}"
 
+	# if LINUXKIT_ISO is set, build an ISO with the kernel and initramfs
+	if [[ -n "${LINUXKIT_ISO}" ]]; then
+		declare lk_iso_output_dir="out"
+		mkdir -p "${lk_iso_output_dir}"
+
+		declare -a lk_iso_args=(
+			"--docker"
+			"--arch" "${kernel_info['DOCKER_ARCH']}"
+			"--format" "iso-efi-initrd"
+			"--name" "hook"
+			"--cache" "${lk_cache_dir}"
+			"--dir" "${lk_iso_output_dir}"
+			"hook.${inventory_id}.yaml" # the linuxkit configuration file
+		)
+
+		log info "Building Hook ISO with kernel ${inventory_id} using linuxkit: ${lk_iso_args[*]}"
+		"${linuxkit_bin}" build "${lk_iso_args[@]}"
+		return 0
+	fi
+	
 	declare -a lk_args=(
 		"--docker"
 		"--arch" "${kernel_info['DOCKER_ARCH']}"