diff --git a/.oniro-ci/build-generic.yaml b/.oniro-ci/build-generic.yaml
index 646fc798cb84e8fe7c1eef16519ba274447de00f..fe7d431ecea5a1013c05c695f7fc89a343680e30 100644
--- a/.oniro-ci/build-generic.yaml
+++ b/.oniro-ci/build-generic.yaml
@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@
         echo "CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_URL: $CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_URL"
         echo "CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_NAME: $CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_NAME"
         echo "CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_BRANCH: $CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_BRANCH"
-        repo init --reference \
-           "$CI_ONIRO_RUNNER_PERSISTENT_STORAGE"/pub/git-repo-mirrors/"$CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_MIRROR" \
+        repo init \
+           $(test -n "${CI_ONIRO_RUNNER_PERSISTENT_STORAGE:-}" && echo --reference "$CI_ONIRO_RUNNER_PERSISTENT_STORAGE"/pub/git-repo-mirrors/"$CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_MIRROR") \
            --manifest-url "$CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_URL" \
            --manifest-name "$CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_NAME" \
            --manifest-branch "$CI_ONIRO_MANIFEST_BRANCH"