diff --git a/src/Runner.Worker/JobExtension.cs b/src/Runner.Worker/JobExtension.cs
index 58e1b1137..246274734 100644
--- a/src/Runner.Worker/JobExtension.cs
+++ b/src/Runner.Worker/JobExtension.cs
@@ -220,6 +220,11 @@ namespace GitHub.Runner.Worker
                         {
                             var networkAlias = pair.Key;
                             var serviceContainer = pair.Value;
+                            if (serviceContainer == null)
+                            {
+                                context.Output($"The service '{networkAlias}' will not be started because the container definition has an empty image.");
+                                continue;
+                            }
                             jobContext.Global.ServiceContainers.Add(new Container.ContainerInfo(HostContext, serviceContainer, false, networkAlias));
                         }
                     }
diff --git a/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/Pipelines/ObjectTemplating/PipelineTemplateConverter.cs b/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/Pipelines/ObjectTemplating/PipelineTemplateConverter.cs
index 69f9a3d32..506a7d268 100644
--- a/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/Pipelines/ObjectTemplating/PipelineTemplateConverter.cs
+++ b/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/Pipelines/ObjectTemplating/PipelineTemplateConverter.cs
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ namespace GitHub.DistributedTask.Pipelines.ObjectTemplating
 
             if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(result.Image))
             {
-                context.Error(value, "Container image cannot be empty");
+                return null;
             }
 
             return result;
diff --git a/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/workflow-v1.0.json b/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/workflow-v1.0.json
index 6ae301fbd..a3745029b 100644
--- a/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/workflow-v1.0.json
+++ b/src/Sdk/DTPipelines/workflow-v1.0.json
@@ -381,7 +381,7 @@
     "container-mapping": {
       "mapping": {
         "properties": {
-          "image": "non-empty-string",
+          "image": "string",
           "options": "non-empty-string",
           "env": "container-env",
           "ports": "sequence-of-non-empty-string",
@@ -414,7 +414,7 @@
         "vars"
       ],
       "one-of": [
-        "non-empty-string",
+        "string",
         "container-mapping"
       ]
     },