diff --git a/src/go/rpk/pkg/adminapi/api_transform.go b/src/go/rpk/pkg/adminapi/api_transform.go
index a29ee26e5a21..44f9fe5d1a0c 100644
--- a/src/go/rpk/pkg/adminapi/api_transform.go
+++ b/src/go/rpk/pkg/adminapi/api_transform.go
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ type TransformMetadata struct {
 	InputTopic   string                     `json:"input_topic"`
 	OutputTopics []string                   `json:"output_topics"`
 	Status       []PartitionTransformStatus `json:"status,omitempty"`
-	Environment  []EnvironmentVariable      `json:"environment"`
+	Environment  []EnvironmentVariable      `json:"environment,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // ListWasmTransforms lists the transforms that are running on a cluster.
diff --git a/src/go/rpk/pkg/cli/transform/deploy.go b/src/go/rpk/pkg/cli/transform/deploy.go
index 45b85c2fca3f..adea42edad9b 100644
--- a/src/go/rpk/pkg/cli/transform/deploy.go
+++ b/src/go/rpk/pkg/cli/transform/deploy.go
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ The --env-var can be repeated to specify multiple variables.
 			fileConfig, err := project.LoadCfg(fs)
 			// We allow users to deploy if they aren't in a directory with transform.yaml
 			// in that case all config needs to be specified on the command line.
-			if err != nil {
+			if err == nil {
 				cfg = mergeProjectConfigs(fileConfig, cfg)
 			}
 			err = validateProjectConfig(cfg, err)
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ func isEmptyProjectConfig(cfg project.Config) bool {
 func validateProjectConfig(cfg project.Config, fileConfigErr error) error {
 	// If the user just typed `rpk transform deploy` then we assume they expected to take the configuration values from
 	// the file, so print out that error.
-	if isEmptyProjectConfig(cfg) && fileConfigErr == nil {
+	if isEmptyProjectConfig(cfg) && fileConfigErr != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unable to find %q: %v", project.ConfigFileName, fileConfigErr)
 	}
 	if cfg.Name == "" {
diff --git a/src/v/redpanda/admin_server.cc b/src/v/redpanda/admin_server.cc
index 60ea28ffb341..9cfbe2a31dc8 100644
--- a/src/v/redpanda/admin_server.cc
+++ b/src/v/redpanda/admin_server.cc
@@ -5884,8 +5884,8 @@ admin_server::deploy_transform(std::unique_ptr<ss::http::request> req) {
         output_topics.push_back(output_nt);
     }
     absl::flat_hash_map<ss::sstring, ss::sstring> env;
-    if (doc.HasMember("env")) {
-        for (const auto& e : doc["env"].GetArray()) {
+    if (doc.HasMember("environment")) {
+        for (const auto& e : doc["environment"].GetArray()) {
             auto v = e.GetObject();
             env.insert_or_assign(v["key"].GetString(), v["value"].GetString());
         }