Imagevolume

CloudNativePG lets the ClusterImageCatalog carry extension images alongside the operand, a capability every currently supported release already has, so a Cluster manifest only needs to name an extension and nothing else. This recipe deploys the community’s extension catalog and shows the operator resolving pgvector’s image, paths and dependencies from a single, versioned source of truth per PostgreSQL major version. More importantly, it is the piece of infrastructure that turns extension distribution into a real ecosystem: once an extension lands in the catalog, every Cluster that references it inherits it for free, with no manifest ever needing to change again.

Say goodbye to the old way of distributing Postgres extensions as part of the main pre-built operand image. Leveraging the Kubernetes ImageVolume feature, CloudNativePG now allows you to mount extensions like pgvector and PostGIS from separate, dedicated images. This new declarative method completely decouples the PostgreSQL core from the extension binaries, enabling dynamic addition, easier evaluation, and simplified updates without ever having to build or manage monolithic custom container images.

Managing extensions is one of the biggest challenges in running PostgreSQL on Kubernetes. In this article, I explain why I believe CloudNativePG —now a CNCF Sandbox project—is on the verge of a breakthrough. Two important new features for both PostgreSQL and Kubernetes—the extension_control_path option and image volumes—will guarantee immutability to extension container images.