diff --git a/system_files/bluefin/usr/libexec/bonedigger-report b/system_files/bluefin/usr/libexec/bonedigger-report
index 5b566d2a..0c14c899 100755
--- a/system_files/bluefin/usr/libexec/bonedigger-report
+++ b/system_files/bluefin/usr/libexec/bonedigger-report
@@ -77,6 +77,24 @@ read_image_info() {
     IMAGE_REF="$(read_image_field image-ref)"
     IMAGE_TAG="$(read_image_field image-tag)"
     IMAGE_FLAVOR="$(read_image_field image-flavor)"
+
+    local booted_ref=""
+    if command -v jq &>/dev/null; then
+        booted_ref="$(printf '%s' "$BOOTC_JSON" | \
+            jq -r '.status.booted.image.image.image // empty' 2>/dev/null || true)"
+    fi
+    if [[ -n "$booted_ref" ]]; then
+        local ref_without_digest="${booted_ref%@*}"
+        local image_component="${ref_without_digest##*/}"
+        IMAGE_REF="$booted_ref"
+        if [[ "$image_component" == *:* ]]; then
+            IMAGE_NAME="${image_component%:*}"
+            IMAGE_TAG="${image_component##*:}"
+        else
+            IMAGE_NAME="$image_component"
+            IMAGE_TAG="unknown"
+        fi
+    fi
 }
 
 read_boot_status() {
@@ -662,6 +680,7 @@ start_bug_report() {
     local description
     local reproduction
 
+    read_boot_status
     read_image_info
     # read_boot_status must run before routing: it corrects IMAGE_TAG
     # from the booted bootc image, and lts routing keys off the tag.
@@ -704,8 +723,8 @@ main() {
 
     parse_args "$@"
     if [[ -n "$CONFIRM_TARGET" ]]; then
-        read_image_info
         read_boot_status
+        read_image_info
         route_issue_repo
         parse_confirm_target "$CONFIRM_TARGET" "$BUG_REPO"
         confirm_report "$CONFIRM_ISSUE" "$CONFIRM_REPO"
diff --git a/tests/test_bonedigger_report.bats b/tests/test_bonedigger_report.bats
index b7de0d7f..7f500d3e 100755
--- a/tests/test_bonedigger_report.bats
+++ b/tests/test_bonedigger_report.bats
@@ -62,6 +62,40 @@ teardown() {
     [ "$output" = "projectbluefin/common" ]
 }
 
+@test "image info prefers booted image reference over stale build metadata" {
+    printf '%s\n' '{"image-name":"bluefin","image-tag":"latest","image-ref":"ghcr.io/projectbluefin/bluefin:latest","image-flavor":"main"}' \
+        > "$WORKDIR/stale-image-info.json"
+
+    run bash -c '
+        source "$1"
+        IMAGE_INFO_FILE="$2"
+        BOOTC_JSON="$3"
+        read_image_info
+        printf "%s|%s|%s" "$IMAGE_NAME" "$IMAGE_TAG" "$IMAGE_REF"
+    ' _ "$BONEDIGGER_SCRIPT" "$WORKDIR/stale-image-info.json" \
+        '{"status":{"booted":{"image":{"image":{"image":"ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota:stable"}}}}}'
+
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    [ "$output" = "dakota|stable|ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota:stable" ]
+}
+
+@test "image info falls back when no booted image is reported" {
+    printf '%s\n' '{"image-name":"bluefin","image-tag":"latest","image-ref":"ghcr.io/projectbluefin/bluefin:latest","image-flavor":"main"}' \
+        > "$WORKDIR/stale-image-info.json"
+
+    run bash -c '
+        source "$1"
+        IMAGE_INFO_FILE="$2"
+        BOOTC_JSON="$3"
+        read_image_info
+        printf "%s|%s" "$IMAGE_NAME" "$IMAGE_TAG"
+    ' _ "$BONEDIGGER_SCRIPT" "$WORKDIR/stale-image-info.json" \
+        '{"status":{"booted":null}}'
+
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    [ "$output" = "bluefin|latest" ]
+}
+
 @test "queue choices map to at most one supported queue label" {
     run bash -c 'source "$1"; queue_label_for_choice "$2"' _ \
         "$BONEDIGGER_SCRIPT" "Submit to the clanker queue for machine analysis"