diff --git a/lib/kamal/cli/templates/deploy.yml b/lib/kamal/cli/templates/deploy.yml
index 44fa22941..6d356c606 100644
--- a/lib/kamal/cli/templates/deploy.yml
+++ b/lib/kamal/cli/templates/deploy.yml
@@ -91,3 +91,8 @@ registry:
 # Caution: there's no support for role renaming yet, so be careful to cleanup
 #          the previous role on the deployed hosts.
 # primary_web_role: web
+
+# Controls if we abort when see a role with no hosts. Disabling this may be
+# useful for more complex deploy configurations.
+#
+# allow_empty_roles: false
diff --git a/lib/kamal/configuration.rb b/lib/kamal/configuration.rb
index 5bf79ea6f..fd79d53ed 100644
--- a/lib/kamal/configuration.rb
+++ b/lib/kamal/configuration.rb
@@ -212,6 +212,11 @@ def primary_web_role
     raw_config.primary_web_role || "web"
   end
 
+  def allow_empty_roles?
+    raw_config.allow_empty_roles
+  end
+
+
   def valid?
     ensure_destination_if_required && ensure_required_keys_present && ensure_valid_kamal_version
   end
@@ -259,12 +264,6 @@ def ensure_required_keys_present
         raise ArgumentError, "You must specify a password for the registry in config/deploy.yml (or set the ENV variable if that's used)"
       end
 
-      roles.each do |role|
-        if role.hosts.empty?
-          raise ArgumentError, "No servers specified for the #{role.name} role"
-        end
-      end
-
       unless role_names.include?(primary_web_role)
         raise ArgumentError, "The primary_web_role #{primary_web_role} isn't defined"
       end
@@ -273,6 +272,18 @@ def ensure_required_keys_present
         raise ArgumentError, "Role #{primary_web_role} needs to have traefik enabled"
       end
 
+      if role(primary_web_role).hosts.empty?
+        raise ArgumentError, "No servers specified for the #{primary_web_role} primary_web_role"
+      end
+
+      unless allow_empty_roles?
+        roles.each do |role|
+          if role.hosts.empty?
+            raise ArgumentError, "No servers specified for the #{role.name} role. You can ignore this with allow_empty_roles: true"
+          end
+        end
+      end
+
       true
     end
 
diff --git a/test/configuration_test.rb b/test/configuration_test.rb
index 00612f24a..d141ad107 100644
--- a/test/configuration_test.rb
+++ b/test/configuration_test.rb
@@ -165,6 +165,16 @@ class ConfigurationTest < ActiveSupport::TestCase
     end
   end
 
+  test "allow_empty_roles" do
+    assert_silent do
+      Kamal::Configuration.new @deploy.merge(servers: { "web" => %w[ web ], "workers" => { "hosts" => %w[ ] } }, allow_empty_roles: true)
+    end
+
+    assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
+      Kamal::Configuration.new @deploy.merge(servers: { "web" => %w[], "workers" => { "hosts" => %w[] } }, allow_empty_roles: true)
+    end
+  end
+
   test "volume_args" do
     assert_equal ["--volume", "/local/path:/container/path"], @config.volume_args
   end