diff --git a/sources/org.osbuild.skopeo b/sources/org.osbuild.skopeo
index f236ea62bf..5d56a32c47 100755
--- a/sources/org.osbuild.skopeo
+++ b/sources/org.osbuild.skopeo
@@ -93,9 +93,9 @@ class SkopeoSource(sources.SourceService):
             os.chmod(archive_dir, 0o755)
 
             source = f"docker://{imagename}@{digest}"
-
             archive_name = containers.archive_name(archive_format)
-            destination = f"{archive_format}:{archive_dir}/{archive_name}"
+            dest_path = os.path.join(archive_dir, archive_name)
+            destination = f"{archive_format}:{dest_path}"
 
             extra_args = []
 
@@ -119,6 +119,10 @@ class SkopeoSource(sources.SourceService):
                 raise RuntimeError(
                     f"Downloaded image {imagename}@{digest} has a id of {downloaded_id}, but expected {image_id}")
 
+            if archive_format == "dir":
+                # fetch the manifest and merge it into the archive
+                self.merge_manifest(source, dest_path)
+
             # Atomically move download archive into place on successful download
             with ctx.suppress_oserror(errno.ENOTEMPTY, errno.EEXIST):
                 os.makedirs(f"{self.cache}/{image_id}", exist_ok=True)
@@ -128,6 +132,23 @@ class SkopeoSource(sources.SourceService):
         archive_name = containers.archive_name(desc["image"].get("format", "docker-archive"))
         return os.path.exists(f"{self.cache}/{checksum}/{archive_name}")
 
+    def merge_manifest(self, source, destination):
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="tmp-download-", dir=self.cache) as indexdir:
+            # download the manifest(s) to a temporary directory
+            subprocess.run(["skopeo", "copy", "--multi-arch=index-only", source, f"dir:{indexdir}"],
+                           encoding="utf-8", check=True)
+
+            # calculate the checksum of the manifest of the container image in the destination
+            manifest_path = os.path.join(destination, "manifest.json")
+            with open(manifest_path, encoding="utf-8") as manifest:
+                manifest_checksum = hashlib.sha256(manifest.read().encode()).hexdigest()
+
+            # rename the manifest to its checksum
+            os.rename(manifest_path, os.path.join(destination, manifest_checksum + ".manifest.json"))
+
+            # move the index manifest into the destination
+            os.rename(os.path.join(indexdir, "manifest.json"), manifest_path)
+
 
 def main():
     service = SkopeoSource.from_args(sys.argv[1:])