diff -Nurp a/src/pybind/mgr/dashboard/frontend/CMakeLists.txt b/src/pybind/mgr/dashboard/frontend/CMakeLists.txt
--- a/src/pybind/mgr/dashboard/frontend/CMakeLists.txt	2025-09-21 15:24:48.806811685 +0000
+++ b/src/pybind/mgr/dashboard/frontend/CMakeLists.txt	2025-09-21 18:39:22.465734384 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,15 @@
 include(CMakeParseArguments)
+# Allow using a prebuilt dist directory instead of building the frontend
+option(DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR "Path to prebuilt dashboard dist" "")
+
+if(DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR)
+  message(STATUS "Using prebuilt dashboard dist from: ${DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR}")
+
+  install(DIRECTORY ${DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR}/
+    DESTINATION ${CEPH_INSTALL_DATADIR}/mgr/dashboard/frontend)
+
+else(DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR)
+
 function(add_npm_command)
   set(options NODEENV)
   set(single_kw OUTPUT COMMENT WORKING_DIRECTORY)
@@ -143,3 +154,4 @@ install(DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY
   DESTINATION ${CEPH_INSTALL_DATADIR}/mgr/dashboard/frontend)
 install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/package.json
   DESTINATION ${CEPH_INSTALL_DATADIR}/mgr/dashboard/frontend)
+endif(DASHBOARD_DIST_DIR)