Tekton operator - unable to change tekton components instance images

[sybernatus]

Expected Behavior

I'm trying to change the image for my tekton instance through the operator installation following this doc.
I want to change the images pulled by tekton components using the environment variables to pull them from an internal registry.

Actual Behavior

Actually I managed to change the operator images by applying a patch and also the tekton job pruner by adding the following environment on the tekton-operator-lifecycle container:

 - name: IMAGE_JOB_PRUNER_TKN
   value: <custom-mirrored-registry>/tektoncd/plumbing/tkn:v20250709-7c1b62c275

This is working as expected ✔️

But when I try to do the same thing with others environment variables:

- name: IMAGE_DASHBOARD_TEKTON_DASHBOARD
  value: <custom-mirrored-registry>/tektoncd/dashboard/dashboard-9623576a202fe86c8b7d1bc489905f86:v0.52.0
- name: IMAGE_PIPELINES_TEKTON_PIPELINES_CONTROLLER
  value: <custom-mirrored-registry>/tektoncd/pipeline/controller-10a3e32792f33651396d02b6855a6e36:v0.65.2

The image won't change and be still the ghr ones. ❌

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

1. Add env variables to the Deployment tekton-operator under tekton-operator-lifecycle container
2. Remove tekton pipeline controller & tekton dashboard deployments
3. Operator will recreate them with the ghr images.

Additional Info

• Tekton Pipeline version: v0.65.2

• Tekton Operator version: v0.74.0

• Kubernetes version: v1.31.7

  Server Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"31", GitVersion:"v1.31.7",  GitCommit:"da53587841b4960dc3bd2af1ec6101b57c79aff4", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2025-03-11T19:55:18Z", GoVersion:"go1.23.6", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}
  

[jkhelil]

@sybernatus
The Tekton Operator has a main CR called TektonConfig, which reconciles the user’s desired inputs. However, image environment variables are not part of the TektonConfig CR and are therefore not reconciled automatically by the operator.
If you want to override an image for a component, you need to delete the corresponding TektonInstallerSet so that the operator regenerates it with your changes.
For the pipeline controller, the relevant entry is pipeline-main-deployment-xxxx.
For the dashboard, it is dashboard-main-deployment-xxxx.
you can get installersets using

kubectl get tektoninstallerset

[sybernatus]

Thanks @jkhelil for the info, it works yes. It's not really compatible with GitOps as it requires a manual action to change images. Is it possible to force the renewal of TektonInstallerSets?
I've added this info in the documentation in this PR.

Isn't it possible to just change the registry where all images are pointing to?

Here I need to handle image by image, the version needed each time I upgrade tekton operator.

I'd like to use the same images, just through my internal registry.

[AlanGreene]

There's an existing enhancement request open for that functionality: #2684

[sybernatus]

Great! Thanks 👌
And what about the GitOps management?
Today the operator detects that we changed the environment variables but does not refresh automatically the TektonInstallerSet, making the update incompatible with gitops as it requieres a manual action to remove them and force the operator to refresh the installation.

Do you think I can open a feature request for this?

[jkhelil]

@sybernatus you are welcome to contribute, You can also add TEKTON_REGISTRY_OVERRIDE to override the registry

[jkhelil]

Mark this as done