diff --git a/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/__tests__/vllmConfigAmi.test.tsx b/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/__tests__/vllmConfigAmi.test.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ba26988c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/__tests__/vllmConfigAmi.test.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, vi } from "vitest";
+import { render, screen } from "@testing-library/react";
+
+import { VllmConfig } from "../configSections";
+
+function renderVllm(amiRequired: boolean) {
+  const state = {
+    selectedEngine: "vllm",
+    dtype: "auto",
+    quantization: "",
+    maxModelLen: "",
+    gpuUtil: "0.9",
+    enforceEager: false,
+    selectedAmiId: "",
+    selectedHfTokenName: "",
+    prefillReplicas: 1,
+    decodeReplicas: 1,
+    prefillGpuIndices: "",
+    decodeGpuIndices: "",
+    isDisaggOpen: false,
+  };
+  return render(
+    <VllmConfig
+      state={state as never}
+      dispatch={vi.fn()}
+      engineAmis={[]}
+      amisLoading={false}
+      amiRegion="us-east-1"
+      amiRequired={amiRequired}
+      hfTokenNames={[]}
+    />
+  );
+}
+
+// The label carries the required asterisk, so it is the thing that must not
+// appear where no AMI is needed.
+const amiLabel = () => document.querySelector('label[for="engineAmi"]');
+
+describe("the engine AMI field follows requiresAmi", () => {
+  it("is not shown for vLLM on a pool that needs no AMI, such as Kubernetes", () => {
+    renderVllm(false);
+    expect(amiLabel()).toBeNull();
+    expect(screen.queryByText(/engine ami/i)).toBeNull();
+  });
+
+  it("is shown, marked required, for vLLM on an AWS pool", () => {
+    renderVllm(true);
+    expect(amiLabel()).not.toBeNull();
+    expect(amiLabel()?.textContent).toContain("*");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/configSections.tsx b/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/configSections.tsx
index 138ff9e6..fa689772 100644
--- a/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/configSections.tsx
+++ b/apps/dashboard/src/components/deployment/configSections.tsx
@@ -358,11 +358,13 @@ export function VllmConfig({
   engineAmis,
   amisLoading,
   amiRegion,
+  amiRequired,
   hfTokenNames,
 }: SectionProps & {
   engineAmis: EngineAmi[]
   amisLoading: boolean
   amiRegion: string
+  amiRequired: boolean
   hfTokenNames: string[]
 }) {
   const {
@@ -375,8 +377,8 @@ export function VllmConfig({
     <div className="space-y-4 p-4 bg-muted/50 rounded-lg border">
       <div className="flex items-center gap-2 mb-2"><Cpu className="w-4 h-4 text-primary" /><h4 className="font-medium text-sm">{selectedEngine === "sglang" ? "SGLang" : "vLLM"} Configuration</h4></div>
 
-      {/* Engine AMI dropdown (required for vLLM only) */}
-      {selectedEngine === "vllm" && (
+      {/* Engine AMI dropdown: vLLM on an AWS pool only */}
+      {amiRequired && (
         <EngineAmiSelect
           selectedAmiId={selectedAmiId}
           dispatch={dispatch}
diff --git a/apps/dashboard/src/pages/NewDeployment.tsx b/apps/dashboard/src/pages/NewDeployment.tsx
index 77866a57..815f6dc1 100644
--- a/apps/dashboard/src/pages/NewDeployment.tsx
+++ b/apps/dashboard/src/pages/NewDeployment.tsx
@@ -1253,6 +1253,7 @@ function ManagedConfig({ state, dispatch, onLaunch, isPending, externalRegistry
           engineAmis={engineAmis}
           amisLoading={amisLoading}
           amiRegion={amiRegion}
+          amiRequired={isAwsPool}
           hfTokenNames={hfTokenNames}
         />
       )}