diff --git a/src/legacy/core_plugins/kbn_vislib_vis_types/public/vislib_fn.js b/src/legacy/core_plugins/kbn_vislib_vis_types/public/vislib_fn.js
index 5c1282faea8e5c..346fb45e367818 100644
--- a/src/legacy/core_plugins/kbn_vislib_vis_types/public/vislib_fn.js
+++ b/src/legacy/core_plugins/kbn_vislib_vis_types/public/vislib_fn.js
@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ export const vislib = () => ({
     defaultMessage: 'Vislib visualization'
   }),
   args: {
+    type: {
+      types: ['string'],
+      default: '""',
+    },
     visConfig: {
       types: ['string', 'null'],
       default: '"{}"',
diff --git a/src/legacy/ui/public/visualize/loader/pipeline_helpers/build_pipeline.ts b/src/legacy/ui/public/visualize/loader/pipeline_helpers/build_pipeline.ts
index 62d9656ba16ac3..4825235ea953e0 100644
--- a/src/legacy/ui/public/visualize/loader/pipeline_helpers/build_pipeline.ts
+++ b/src/legacy/ui/public/visualize/loader/pipeline_helpers/build_pipeline.ts
@@ -508,7 +508,7 @@ export const buildPipeline = async (
     const visConfig = visState.params;
     visConfig.dimensions = await buildVislibDimensions(vis, params);
 
-    pipeline += `vislib ${prepareJson('visConfig', visState.params)}`;
+    pipeline += `vislib type='${vis.type.name}' ${prepareJson('visConfig', visState.params)}`;
   } else if (vis.type.toExpression) {
     pipeline += await vis.type.toExpression(vis, params);
   } else {