diff --git a/.github/workflows/conda_library.yaml b/.github/workflows/conda_library.yaml
index 23f94d467..807d7872b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/conda_library.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/conda_library.yaml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ jobs:
         run: conda config --set anaconda_upload no
 
       - name: Build
-        run: conda build conda-recipes/main-library --output-folder build_output
+        run: ./conda-recipes/build_conda.sh build_output main-library
 
       - name: Upload all Conda packages
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
diff --git a/.github/workflows/conda_python.yaml b/.github/workflows/conda_python.yaml
index d482b8e6f..df67552e1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/conda_python.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/conda_python.yaml
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ jobs:
         run: conda config --set anaconda_upload no
 
       - name: Build
-        run: conda build conda-recipes/python-client --output-folder build_output
+        run: ./conda-recipes/build_conda.sh build_output python-client 
 
       - name: Upload all Conda packages
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
diff --git a/conda-recipes/build_conda.sh b/conda-recipes/build_conda.sh
index 6915f89a9..7e6ab3f46 100755
--- a/conda-recipes/build_conda.sh
+++ b/conda-recipes/build_conda.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,21 @@ SCRIPTDIR=$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)
 VERSION=$(cat $SCRIPTDIR/../VERSION)
 export VERSION
 
-echo "building conda package version: $VERSION"
+if [ -z "$1" ]
+then
+    output_dir=$CONDA_PREFIX/conda-bld
+else
+    output_dir=$1
+fi
 
-conda build .
+if [ -z "$2" ]
+then
+    recipe=$SCRIPTDIR
+else
+    recipe=$SCRIPTDIR/$2
+fi
+
+echo "building conda package version: $VERSION using recipe $recipe and writing output to $output_dir"
+
+
+conda build $recipe --output-folder $output_dir