feast-dev
diff --git a/.secrets.baseline b/.secrets.baseline
@@ -957,7 +957,7 @@
         "filename": "infra/feast-operator/api/v1/featurestore_types.go",
         "hashed_secret": "44e17306b837162269a410204daaa5ecee4ec22c",
         "is_verified": false,
-        "line_number": 942
+        "line_number": 946
       }
     ],
     "infra/feast-operator/api/v1/zz_generated.deepcopy.go": [
@@ -966,21 +966,21 @@
         "filename": "infra/feast-operator/api/v1/zz_generated.deepcopy.go",
         "hashed_secret": "f914fc9324de1bec1ad13dec94a8ea2ddb41fc87",
         "is_verified": false,
-        "line_number": 817
+        "line_number": 822
       },
       {
         "type": "Secret Keyword",
         "filename": "infra/feast-operator/api/v1/zz_generated.deepcopy.go",
         "hashed_secret": "44e17306b837162269a410204daaa5ecee4ec22c",
         "is_verified": false,
-        "line_number": 878
+        "line_number": 883
       },
       {
         "type": "Secret Keyword",
         "filename": "infra/feast-operator/api/v1/zz_generated.deepcopy.go",
         "hashed_secret": "c2028031c154bbe86fd69bef740855c74b927dcf",
         "is_verified": false,
-        "line_number": 1570
+        "line_number": 1575
       }
     ],
     "infra/feast-operator/api/v1alpha1/featurestore_types.go": [
@@ -1564,5 +1564,5 @@
       }
     ]
   },
-  "generated_at": "2026-07-23T08:52:32Z"
+  "generated_at": "2026-07-30T09:40:48Z"
 }
@@ -407,6 +407,10 @@ type FeatureStoreServices struct {
 	PodAnnotations map[string]string `json:"podAnnotations,omitempty"`
 	// Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
 	DisableInitContainers bool `json:"disableInitContainers,omitempty"`
+	// InitImage overrides the image for init containers (feast-init, feast-apply).
+	// Resolution order: InitImage → RELATED_IMAGE_FEATURE_SERVER → DefaultImage.
+	// +optional
+	InitImage *string `json:"initImage,omitempty"`
 	// Runs feast apply on pod start to populate the registry. Defaults to true. Ignored when DisableInitContainers is true.
 	RunFeastApplyOnInit *bool `json:"runFeastApplyOnInit,omitempty"`
 	// Volumes specifies the volumes to mount in the FeatureStore deployment. A corresponding `VolumeMount` should be added to whichever feast service(s) require access to said volume(s).

@@ -1723,6 +1723,10 @@ spec:
                   disableInitContainers:
                     description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                     type: boolean
+                  initImage:
+                    description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                      (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                    type: string
                   offlineStore:
                     description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                     properties:
@@ -8020,6 +8024,10 @@ spec:
                       disableInitContainers:
                         description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                         type: boolean
+                      initImage:
+                        description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                          (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                        type: string
                       offlineStore:
                         description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                         properties:

@@ -1723,6 +1723,10 @@ spec:
                   disableInitContainers:
                     description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                     type: boolean
+                  initImage:
+                    description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                      (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                    type: string
                   offlineStore:
                     description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                     properties:
@@ -8025,6 +8029,10 @@ spec:
                       disableInitContainers:
                         description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                         type: boolean
+                      initImage:
+                        description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                          (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                        type: string
                       offlineStore:
                         description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                         properties:

@@ -1731,6 +1731,10 @@ spec:
                   disableInitContainers:
                     description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                     type: boolean
+                  initImage:
+                    description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                      (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                    type: string
                   offlineStore:
                     description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                     properties:
@@ -8033,6 +8037,10 @@ spec:
                       disableInitContainers:
                         description: Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer
                         type: boolean
+                      initImage:
+                        description: InitImage overrides the image for init containers
+                          (feast-init, feast-apply).
+                        type: string
                       offlineStore:
                         description: OfflineStore configures the offline store service
                         properties:

@@ -256,6 +256,8 @@ _Appears in:_
 This enables annotation-driven integrations like OpenTelemetry auto-instrumentation,
 Istio sidecar injection, Vault agent injection, etc. |
 | `disableInitContainers` _boolean_ | Disable the 'feast repo initialization' initContainer |
+| `initImage` _string_ | InitImage overrides the image for init containers (feast-init, feast-apply).
+Resolution order: InitImage → RELATED_IMAGE_FEATURE_SERVER → DefaultImage. |
 | `runFeastApplyOnInit` _boolean_ | Runs feast apply on pod start to populate the registry. Defaults to true. Ignored when DisableInitContainers is true. |
 | `volumes` _[Volume](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/v1.30/#volume-v1-core) array_ | Volumes specifies the volumes to mount in the FeatureStore deployment. A corresponding `VolumeMount` should be added to whichever feast service(s) require access to said volume(s). |
 | `scaling` _[ScalingConfig](#scalingconfig)_ | Scaling configures horizontal scaling for the FeatureStore deployment (e.g. HPA autoscaling).

@@ -299,6 +299,41 @@ var _ = Describe("FeatureStore Controller", func() {
 			Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
 			Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.InitContainers).To(HaveLen(2))
 			Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.InitContainers[0].Args[0]).To(ContainSubstring("feast init -t spark"))
+
+			// initImage is independent of server images: init containers use initImage,
+			// main containers keep their own server.image.
+			initImage := "quay.io/org/feast-init:custom"
+			serverImage := "quay.io/org/feast-online:server"
+			if resource.Spec.Services == nil {
+				resource.Spec.Services = &feastdevv1.FeatureStoreServices{}
+			}
+			resource.Spec.Services.InitImage = &initImage
+			if resource.Spec.Services.OnlineStore == nil {
+				resource.Spec.Services.OnlineStore = &feastdevv1.OnlineStore{}
+			}
+			if resource.Spec.Services.OnlineStore.Server == nil {
+				resource.Spec.Services.OnlineStore.Server = &feastdevv1.ServerConfigs{}
+			}
+			resource.Spec.Services.OnlineStore.Server.Image = &serverImage
+			err = k8sClient.Update(ctx, resource)
+			Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+			_, err = controllerReconciler.Reconcile(ctx, reconcile.Request{
+				NamespacedName: typeNamespacedName,
+			})
+			Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+
+			err = k8sClient.Get(ctx, types.NamespacedName{
+				Name:      objMeta.Name,
+				Namespace: objMeta.Namespace,
+			}, deploy)
+			Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.InitContainers).To(HaveLen(2))
+			Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.InitContainers[0].Image).To(Equal(initImage))
+			Expect(deploy.Spec.Template.Spec.InitContainers[1].Image).To(Equal(initImage))
+			online = services.GetOnlineContainer(*deploy)
+			Expect(online).NotTo(BeNil())
+			Expect(online.Image).To(Equal(serverImage))
+			Expect(online.Image).NotTo(Equal(initImage))
 		})
 
 		It("should properly encode a feature_store.yaml config", func() {

@@ -704,9 +704,10 @@ func (feast *FeastServices) setInitContainer(podSpec *corev1.PodSpec, fsYamlB64
 		feastProjectDir := applied.FeastProjectDir
 		workingDir := getOfflineMountPath(feast.Handler.FeatureStore)
 		projectPath := workingDir + "/" + applied.FeastProject
+		initImage := getInitContainerImage(applied.Services)
 		container := corev1.Container{
 			Name:  feastInitContainerName,
-			Image: getFeatureServerImage(),
+			Image: initImage,
 			Env: []corev1.EnvVar{
 				{
 					Name:  TmpFeatureStoreYamlEnvVar,
@@ -759,7 +760,7 @@ func (feast *FeastServices) setInitContainer(podSpec *corev1.PodSpec, fsYamlB64
 		if applied.Services.RunFeastApplyOnInit != nil && *applied.Services.RunFeastApplyOnInit {
 			applyContainer := corev1.Container{
 				Name:       feastApplyContainerName,
-				Image:      getFeatureServerImage(),
+				Image:      initImage,
 				Command:    []string{feastCommand, "apply"},
 				WorkingDir: featureRepoDir,
 			}

@@ -214,6 +214,15 @@ func getFeatureServerImage() string {
 	return DefaultImage
 }
 
+// getInitContainerImage resolves the image for feast-init / feast-apply.
+// Order: spec.services.initImage → RELATED_IMAGE_FEATURE_SERVER → DefaultImage.
+func getInitContainerImage(services *feastdevv1.FeatureStoreServices) string {
+	if services != nil && services.InitImage != nil && len(*services.InitImage) > 0 {
+		return *services.InitImage
+	}
+	return getFeatureServerImage()
+}
+
 func checkOfflineStoreFilePersistenceType(value string) error {
 	if slices.Contains(feastdevv1.ValidOfflineStoreFilePersistenceTypes, value) {
 		return nil

@@ -17,10 +17,13 @@ limitations under the License.
 package services
 
 import (
-	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
-	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+	"os"
+	"testing"
 
 	feastdevv1 "github.com/feast-dev/feast/infra/feast-operator/api/v1"
+	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
+	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
+	"k8s.io/utils/ptr"
 )
 
 var _ = Describe("ApplyDefaultsToStatus", func() {
@@ -60,7 +63,7 @@ var _ = Describe("ApplyDefaultsToStatus", func() {
 	})
 
 	// #6586: disabling the online store opts out of its persistence and serving
-	// pod, letting a registry-only or offline-only FeatureStore skip it while
+	// pod, letting a registry-only or offline-only ViewerStore skip it while
 	// leaving the default-on behavior unchanged for everyone else.
 	It("does not apply persistence or server defaults when the online store is disabled", func() {
 		cr := &feastdevv1.FeatureStore{
@@ -81,3 +84,62 @@ var _ = Describe("ApplyDefaultsToStatus", func() {
 		Expect(online.Server).To(BeNil())
 	})
 })
+
+func TestGetInitContainerImage(t *testing.T) {
+	customInit := "quay.io/org/feast-init:custom"
+	envImage := "quay.io/org/feast-env:test"
+
+	t.Run("uses initImage and ignores differing server images", func(t *testing.T) {
+		t.Setenv(feastServerImageVar, envImage)
+		got := getInitContainerImage(&feastdevv1.FeatureStoreServices{
+			InitImage: ptr.To(customInit),
+			OfflineStore: &feastdevv1.OfflineStore{
+				Server: &feastdevv1.ServerConfigs{
+					ContainerConfigs: feastdevv1.ContainerConfigs{
+						DefaultCtrConfigs: feastdevv1.DefaultCtrConfigs{
+							Image: ptr.To("quay.io/org/offline:v1"),
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+			OnlineStore: &feastdevv1.OnlineStore{
+				Server: &feastdevv1.ServerConfigs{
+					ContainerConfigs: feastdevv1.ContainerConfigs{
+						DefaultCtrConfigs: feastdevv1.DefaultCtrConfigs{
+							Image: ptr.To("quay.io/org/online:v1"),
+						},
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		})
+		if got != customInit {
+			t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q (must not inherit server images)", got, customInit)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("falls back to RELATED_IMAGE_FEATURE_SERVER", func(t *testing.T) {
+		t.Setenv(feastServerImageVar, envImage)
+		got := getInitContainerImage(&feastdevv1.FeatureStoreServices{})
+		if got != envImage {
+			t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", got, envImage)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("falls back to DefaultImage", func(t *testing.T) {
+		_ = os.Unsetenv(feastServerImageVar)
+		got := getInitContainerImage(nil)
+		if got != DefaultImage {
+			t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", got, DefaultImage)
+		}
+	})
+
+	t.Run("ignores empty initImage", func(t *testing.T) {
+		t.Setenv(feastServerImageVar, envImage)
+		got := getInitContainerImage(&feastdevv1.FeatureStoreServices{
+			InitImage: ptr.To(""),
+		})
+		if got != envImage {
+			t.Fatalf("got %q, want %q", got, envImage)
+		}
+	})
+}