aws / aws/containers-roadmap

[EKS] [Addon]: Allow image/repository override for EKS managed add-ons (e.g., AWS Pod Identity Agent)

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EKS EKS Add-Ons Proposed
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Description

### Community Note

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**Tell us about your request**
What do you want us to build?

Due to our enterprise security and network policies, our EKS clusters run with strict egress controls, and all container images must be sourced from approved internal registries. We also maintain hardened, scanned, and signed images to meet compliance requirements. Because of this setup, we must be able to customize the container images used by EKS managed add-ons.

**Which service(s) is this request for?**
EKS

**Tell us about the problem you're trying to solve. What are you trying to do, and why is it hard?**
What outcome are you trying to achieve, ultimately, and why is it hard/impossible to do right now? What is the impact of not having this problem solved? The more details you can provide, the better we'll be able to understand and solve the problem.

The AWS EKS managed add-on for the AWS Pod Identity Agent currently allows changing only the imagePullPolicy.
It does not expose settings to override the container image (repository and tag/digest).
The upstream Helm chart already supports overriding the image repository and tag, so the capability exists in principle but is not surfaced by the managed add-on.

Without the ability to set the image repository and tag/digest, we cannot deploy the add-on in our restricted environments.
This blocks adoption of the AWS Pod Identity Agent and, more broadly, limits our ability to use other EKS managed add-ons under the same constraints.

Please enhance the AWS EKS managed add-on for the AWS Pod Identity Agent to allow overriding:
- image repository
- image tag (and ideally digest)
- imagePullPolicy (already supported)
- imagePullSecrets (for private registries)

We also kindly request that this baseline functionality (image repository and tag/digest override, plus imagePullPolicy and imagePullSecrets) be standardized across all current and future EKS managed add-ons. Without it, we are unable to use these add-ons in production.

**Are you currently working around this issue?**

Deploying the upstream Helm chart directly works for us because it supports image overrides; however, we prefer the AWS managed add-on for its lifecycle management, compatibility assurances, and operational simplicity. CDK also integrated with this Addon and will not work without it (L2 Construct for ServiceAccounts)

**Additional context**

Our environments are private and tightly controlled (no direct public egress).
We must pull only from approved internal registries and often mirror or rebuild vendor images for compliance.
The upstream Helm charts already support these values; exposing them in the managed add-ons should be a relatively small change and would significantly improve enterprise adoption.

**Attachments**
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Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reviewing the upstream Helm chart mentioned in the issue and the EKS managed add-on behavior described in the request. Confirm which image repository, tag or digest, imagePullPolicy, and imagePullSecrets settings are currently exposed. Done means the managed add-on supports these overrides consistently for the AWS Pod Identity Agent and ideally other EKS managed add-ons.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
aws, kubernetes
Domain
cloud
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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