diff --git a/meta-test/recipes-app/test-nopriority/test-nopriority.bb b/meta-test/recipes-app/test-nopriority/test-nopriority.bb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dc06c112
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-test/recipes-app/test-nopriority/test-nopriority.bb
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Test that a .deb without a Priority field can be added to the repository.
+# The debianize class sets Priority in the Source stanza of debian/control;
+# we strip it here so the resulting .deb has no Priority metadata, exercising
+# the prio_opt fallback in repository.bbclass.
+
+inherit dpkg-raw
+
+do_prepare_build:append() {
+    sed -i '/^Priority:/d' ${S}/debian/control
+}
diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/repository.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/repository.bbclass
index a5dd8bbc..ba2803ad 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/repository.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/repository.bbclass
@@ -61,14 +61,23 @@ repo_add_packages() {
     local dir="$1"
     local dbdir="$2"
     local codename="$3"
+    local package
+    local priority
+    local prio_opt
     shift; shift; shift
 
     if [ -n "${GNUPGHOME}" ]; then
         export GNUPGHOME="${GNUPGHOME}"
     fi
-    reprepro -b "${dir}" --dbdir "${dbdir}" -C main \
-        includedeb "${codename}" \
-        "$@"
+    for package in "$@"; do
+        prio_opt=""
+        priority=$(dpkg-deb -f "${package}" Priority 2>/dev/null || true)
+        if [ -z "${priority}" ]; then
+            prio_opt="-P optional"
+        fi
+        reprepro -b "${dir}" --dbdir "${dbdir}" -C main ${prio_opt} \
+            includedeb "${codename}" "${package}"
+    done
 }
 
 repo_del_srcpackage() {
diff --git a/testsuite/citest.py b/testsuite/citest.py
index fc6ec24c..9fdb9fd7 100755
--- a/testsuite/citest.py
+++ b/testsuite/citest.py
@@ -84,6 +84,16 @@ class DevTest(CIBaseTest):
         self.init()
         self.perform_build_test(targets)
 
+    def test_dev_nopriority(self):
+        """Test that packages without a Priority field can be added to the repo."""
+        targets = [
+            'mc:qemuamd64-bookworm:isar-image-ci',
+        ]
+
+        self.init()
+        self.perform_build_test(targets,
+                                image_install='test-nopriority')
+
     def test_dev_rebuild(self):
         self.init()
         layerdir_core = CIUtils.getVars('LAYERDIR_core')