diff --git a/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image-base.bb b/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image-base.bb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56ed0e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image-base.bb
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+SUMMARY = "Subgraph OS Citadel Base CLI image builder"
+LICENSE = "MIT"
+
+
+IMAGE_FEATURES_append = " empty-root-password"
+
+#
+# Set by the machine configuration with packages essential for device bootup
+#
+MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RDEPENDS ?= ""
+MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS ?= ""
+
+IMAGE_INSTALL = "\
+    packagegroup-citadel-base \
+"
+
+RDEPENDS_${PN} = "\
+    ${MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RDEPENDS} \
+"
+
+RRECOMMENDS_${PN} = "\
+    ${MACHINE_ESSENTIAL_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS}"
+
+ROOT_PASSWORD ?= "citadel"
+
+inherit core-image showvars
+
+WKS_FILE="citadel-image-minimal.wks"
+DEPENDS += "linux-citadel"
+
diff --git a/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image.bb b/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image.bb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1f77a74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-citadel-distro/recipes-core/images/citadel-image.bb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+
+SUMMARY = "Subgraph OS Citadel image builder"
+LICENSE = "MIT"
+
+require citadel-image-base.bb