diff --git a/docs/deployment_patterns.md b/docs/deployment_patterns.md
index 2ec82dca..68484f13 100644
--- a/docs/deployment_patterns.md
+++ b/docs/deployment_patterns.md
@@ -82,10 +82,10 @@ For deployments using images from private container registries (e.g., GitHub Con
 
 ### Configuration
 
-Add an `image-registry` section to your spec.yml:
+Add a `registry-credentials` section to your spec.yml:
 
 ```yaml
-image-registry:
+registry-credentials:
   server: ghcr.io
   username: your-org-or-username
   token-env: REGISTRY_TOKEN
@@ -121,6 +121,6 @@ When using Ansible for deployments, pass the token from a credentials file:
 
 ### How It Works
 
-1. laconic-so reads the `image-registry` config from spec.yml
+1. laconic-so reads the `registry-credentials` config from spec.yml
 2. Creates a Kubernetes `docker-registry` secret named `{deployment}-registry`
 3. The deployment's pods reference this secret for image pulls
diff --git a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/spec.py b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/spec.py
index 07b220cd..e5647b04 100644
--- a/stack_orchestrator/deploy/spec.py
+++ b/stack_orchestrator/deploy/spec.py
@@ -103,8 +103,11 @@ class Spec:
 
         Used for private container registries like GHCR. The token-env field
         specifies an environment variable containing the API token/PAT.
+
+        Note: Uses 'registry-credentials' key to avoid collision with
+        'image-registry' key which is for pushing images.
         """
-        return self.obj.get("image-registry")
+        return self.obj.get("registry-credentials")
 
     def get_volumes(self):
         return self.obj.get(constants.volumes_key, {})