crossplane / crossplane/crossplane

Provider/Function names from Configuration package dependencies are tied to OCI repo path

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enhancement
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Go
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Description

### What problem are you facing?

I previously installed providers manually (via Helm/Kustomize, applying `Provider`
manifests directly), which let me name them canonically, e.g.:

```
provider-foo
provider-kubernetes
```

With the new DevEx, Configuration packages are now the recommended way to manage
dependencies, so I've been migrating my control planes to use them. However, when a
provider is pulled in as a dependency of a Configuration, its resulting `Provider`
object is named based on the OCI repository path it was resolved from, e.g.:

```
my-registry-mirror-providers-provider-foo
my-registry-mirror-providers-provider-kubernetes
```

Since this name doesn't match the name of my existing, manually-installed
`Provider` object, the package manager doesn't recognize it as the same provider.
There's no way to rename a `Provider`/`Function` package in place, so the only path
forward is to uninstall the old provider and install the new one under the new
name. For a running production control plane, that effectively means uninstalling
the whole control plane and everything it manages, which is not something I can do
safely.

This gets worse in air-gapped/mirrored-registry setups: the OCI path used to pull a
package is often a mirror path, not the "canonical" upstream one, and that mirror
path can change independent of the package/image itself (e.g., the internal
registry gets renamed or restructured - this has already happened to me twice).
The team that owns the control plane isn't always the team that owns/names the OCI
registry, so we have no control over avoiding these renames.

Current known workarounds - installing dependencies as `apiOnly`, using
`skipDependencyResolution: true`, or manually moving CRD `ownerRefs` from the old
`Provider` to the new one while scaling the old provider to 0 - all either give up
the benefits of dependency management or carry real risk (an accidental CRD
deletion can cascade-delete managed resources).

### How could Crossplane help solve your problem?

Extend `ImageConfig` (or a similar mechanism) to let users control the resulting
package name for a dependency, decoupling the `Provider`/`Function` object's name
from the OCI repository path it happens to be resolved from.

This would let users:
- Pin a stable, canonical name for a provider/function regardless of which
registry/mirror path it's actually pulled from.
- Migrate from manually-installed providers/functions to Configuration-managed
ones without an uninstall/reinstall cycle, and without disrupting resources
already managed by those providers.
- Rename or restructure the backing OCI registry (common in air-gapped
environments) without forcing a rename/recreate of every dependent
`Provider`/`Function` object downstream.

One possible shape: an explicit `name` override per dependency in the
Configuration/Lock, or a name-rewrite rule in `ImageConfig` analogous to the
existing path-rewrite behavior used for mirrors, so a resolved image path can be
mapped to a stable, user-chosen package name.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reading the existing ImageConfig path-rewrite behavior and the Configuration/Lock dependency resolution flow. Trace where Provider and Function names are derived from resolved OCI repository paths. Done should include a decided naming override mechanism that preserves stable names across mirrors and supports migration from manually installed packages.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
infrastructure
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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