diff --git a/lib/Cargo.toml b/lib/Cargo.toml
index 0aa1ebd0c..dfee6a003 100644
--- a/lib/Cargo.toml
+++ b/lib/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,8 +22,6 @@ hex = "^0.4"
 fn-error-context = "0.2.0"
 gvariant = "0.4.0"
 indicatif = "0.17.0"
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.20.0", features = ["v1_28", "schemars"] }
-kube = { version = "0.86.0", default-features = false, features = ["client", "openssl-tls", "runtime", "derive", "openssl-tls"] }
 libc = "^0.2"
 liboverdrop = "0.1.0"
 once_cell = "1.9"
diff --git a/lib/src/k8sapitypes.rs b/lib/src/k8sapitypes.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c2b8a87a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/src/k8sapitypes.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+//! Subset of API definitions for selected Kubernetes API types.
+//! We avoid dragging in all of k8s-openapi because it's *huge*.
+
+use std::collections::BTreeMap;
+
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+pub struct Resource {
+    pub api_version: String,
+    pub kind: String,
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub metadata: ObjectMeta,
+}
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+pub struct ObjectMeta {
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub annotations: Option<BTreeMap<String, String>>,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub labels: Option<BTreeMap<String, String>>,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub name: Option<String>,
+    #[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]
+    pub namespace: Option<String>,
+}
diff --git a/lib/src/lib.rs b/lib/src/lib.rs
index 9e8f64cd3..a725301cb 100644
--- a/lib/src/lib.rs
+++ b/lib/src/lib.rs
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ mod containerenv;
 pub(crate) mod ignition;
 #[cfg(feature = "install")]
 mod install;
+mod k8sapitypes;
 #[cfg(feature = "install")]
 pub(crate) mod mount;
 #[cfg(feature = "install")]
diff --git a/lib/src/spec.rs b/lib/src/spec.rs
index 8019a3d6f..577924e40 100644
--- a/lib/src/spec.rs
+++ b/lib/src/spec.rs
@@ -1,25 +1,30 @@
 //! The definition for host system state.
 
-use k8s_openapi::apimachinery::pkg::apis::meta::v1 as k8smeta;
-use kube::CustomResource;
 use schemars::JsonSchema;
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
 
-/// Representation of a bootc host system
-#[derive(
-    CustomResource, Serialize, Deserialize, Default, Debug, PartialEq, Eq, Clone, JsonSchema,
-)]
-#[kube(
-    group = "org.containers.bootc",
-    version = "v1alpha1",
-    kind = "BootcHost",
-    struct = "Host",
-    namespaced,
-    status = "HostStatus",
-    derive = "PartialEq",
-    derive = "Default"
-)]
+use crate::k8sapitypes;
+
+const API_VERSION: &str = "org.containers.bootc/v1alpha1";
+const KIND: &str = "BootcHost";
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
+#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+/// The core host definition
+pub struct Host {
+    /// Metadata
+    #[serde(flatten)]
+    pub resource: k8sapitypes::Resource,
+    /// The spec
+    #[serde(default)]
+    pub spec: HostSpec,
+    /// The status
+    pub status: Option<HostStatus>,
+}
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Default, Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq)]
 #[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]
+/// The host specification
 pub struct HostSpec {
     /// The host image
     pub image: Option<ImageReference>,
@@ -58,7 +63,7 @@ pub struct ImageStatus {
     /// The version string, if any
     pub version: Option<String>,
     /// The build timestamp, if any
-    pub timestamp: Option<k8smeta::Time>,
+    pub timestamp: Option<chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc>>,
     /// The digest of the fetched image (e.g. sha256:a0...);
     pub image_digest: String,
 }
@@ -102,6 +107,25 @@ pub struct HostStatus {
     pub is_container: bool,
 }
 
+impl Host {
+    /// Create a new host
+    pub fn new(name: &str, spec: HostSpec) -> Self {
+        let metadata = k8sapitypes::ObjectMeta {
+            name: Some(name.to_owned()),
+            ..Default::default()
+        };
+        Self {
+            resource: k8sapitypes::Resource {
+                api_version: API_VERSION.to_owned(),
+                kind: KIND.to_owned(),
+                metadata,
+            },
+            spec,
+            status: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use super::*;
diff --git a/lib/src/status.rs b/lib/src/status.rs
index e0a342a65..b74721087 100644
--- a/lib/src/status.rs
+++ b/lib/src/status.rs
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ use std::collections::VecDeque;
 use crate::spec::{BootEntry, Host, HostSpec, HostStatus, ImageStatus};
 use crate::spec::{ImageReference, ImageSignature};
 use anyhow::{Context, Result};
-use k8s_openapi::apimachinery::pkg::apis::meta::v1 as k8smeta;
 use ostree::glib;
 use ostree_container::OstreeImageReference;
 use ostree_ext::container as ostree_container;
@@ -89,9 +88,9 @@ pub(crate) struct Deployments {
     pub(crate) other: VecDeque<ostree::Deployment>,
 }
 
-fn try_deserialize_timestamp(t: &str) -> Option<k8smeta::Time> {
+fn try_deserialize_timestamp(t: &str) -> Option<chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc>> {
     match chrono::DateTime::parse_from_rfc3339(t).context("Parsing timestamp") {
-        Ok(t) => Some(k8smeta::Time(t.with_timezone(&chrono::Utc))),
+        Ok(t) => Some(t.into()),
         Err(e) => {
             tracing::warn!("Invalid timestamp in image: {:#}", e);
             None