diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/annotate/annotate.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/annotate/annotate.go
index 3db68106be3..604659283d7 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/annotate/annotate.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/annotate/annotate.go
@@ -207,8 +207,17 @@ func (o AnnotateOptions) Validate() error {
 	if o.all && len(o.fieldSelector) > 0 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("cannot set --all and --field-selector at the same time")
 	}
-	if len(o.resources) < 1 && cmdutil.IsFilenameSliceEmpty(o.Filenames, o.Kustomize) {
-		return fmt.Errorf("one or more resources must be specified as <resource> <name> or <resource>/<name>")
+	if !o.local {
+		if len(o.resources) < 1 && cmdutil.IsFilenameSliceEmpty(o.Filenames, o.Kustomize) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("one or more resources must be specified as <resource> <name> or <resource>/<name>")
+		}
+	} else {
+		if len(o.resources) > 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("can only use local files by -f rsrc.yaml or --filename=rsrc.json when --local=true is set")
+		}
+		if cmdutil.IsFilenameSliceEmpty(o.Filenames, o.Kustomize) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("one or more files must be specified as -f rsrc.yaml or --filename=rsrc.json")
+		}
 	}
 	if len(o.newAnnotations) < 1 && len(o.removeAnnotations) < 1 {
 		return fmt.Errorf("at least one annotation update is required")