feat: Option to have devspaces operator create namespace instead of p…

api/v2/checluster_types.go

@@ -500,6 +500,10 @@ type DefaultNamespace struct {
 	// +optional
 	// +kubebuilder:default:=true
 	AutoProvision *bool `json:"autoProvision,omitempty"`
+	// For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+	// a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+	// is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+	DirectNamespaceCreation *bool `json:"directNamespaceCreation,omitempty"`
 }
 
 type DashboardHeaderMessage struct {

bundle/next/eclipse-che/manifests/che-operator.clusterserviceversion.yaml

@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ metadata:
     categories: Developer Tools
     certified: "false"
     containerImage: quay.io/eclipse/che-operator:next
-    createdAt: "2026-03-19T13:07:33Z"
+    createdAt: "2026-03-23T09:20:08Z"
     description: A Kube-native development solution that delivers portable and collaborative
       developer workspaces.
     features.operators.openshift.io/cnf: "false"
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ metadata:
     operatorframework.io/arch.amd64: supported
     operatorframework.io/arch.arm64: supported
     operatorframework.io/os.linux: supported
-  name: eclipse-che.v7.116.0-956.next
+  name: eclipse-che.v7.116.0-958.next
   namespace: placeholder
 spec:
   apiservicedefinitions: {}
@@ -1144,7 +1144,7 @@ spec:
       name: gateway-authorization-sidecar-k8s
     - image: quay.io/che-incubator/header-rewrite-proxy:latest
       name: gateway-header-sidecar
-  version: 7.116.0-956.next
+  version: 7.116.0-958.next
   webhookdefinitions:
     - admissionReviewVersions:
         - v1

bundle/next/eclipse-che/manifests/org.eclipse.che_checlusters.yaml

@@ -7708,6 +7708,12 @@ spec:
                             Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                             If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                           type: boolean
+                        directNamespaceCreation:
+                          description: |-
+                            For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                            a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                            is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                          type: boolean
                         template:
                           default: <username>-che
                           description: |-

config/crd/bases/org.eclipse.che_checlusters.yaml

@@ -7662,6 +7662,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

deploy/deployment/kubernetes/combined.yaml

@@ -7683,6 +7683,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

deploy/deployment/kubernetes/objects/checlusters.org.eclipse.che.CustomResourceDefinition.yaml

@@ -7678,6 +7678,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

deploy/deployment/openshift/combined.yaml

@@ -7683,6 +7683,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

deploy/deployment/openshift/objects/checlusters.org.eclipse.che.CustomResourceDefinition.yaml

@@ -7678,6 +7678,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

helmcharts/next/crds/checlusters.org.eclipse.che.CustomResourceDefinition.yaml

@@ -7678,6 +7678,12 @@ spec:
                           Indicates if is allowed to automatically create a user namespace.
                           If it set to false, then user namespace must be pre-created by a cluster administrator.
                         type: boolean
+                      directNamespaceCreation:
+                        description: |-
+                          For OpenShift clusters only, setting this to `true` creates
+                          a standard Kubernetes Namespace directly. When false (default), the OpenShift ProjectRequest API
+                          is used instead to trigger cluster-specific Project Templates.
+                        type: boolean
                       template:
                         default: <username>-che
                         description: |-

pkg/common/constants/constants.go

@@ -108,13 +108,14 @@ const (
 	ConfigOpenShiftIOInjectTrustedCaBundle          = "config.openshift.io/inject-trusted-cabundle"
 
 	// DevEnvironments
-	PerUserPVCStorageStrategy      = "per-user"
-	DefaultPvcStorageStrategy      = "per-user"
-	PerWorkspacePVCStorageStrategy = "per-workspace"
-	EphemeralPVCStorageStrategy    = "ephemeral"
-	CommonPVCStorageStrategy       = "common"
-	DefaultDeploymentStrategy      = "Recreate"
-	DefaultAutoProvision           = true
+	PerUserPVCStorageStrategy        = "per-user"
+	DefaultPvcStorageStrategy        = "per-user"
+	PerWorkspacePVCStorageStrategy   = "per-workspace"
+	EphemeralPVCStorageStrategy      = "ephemeral"
+	CommonPVCStorageStrategy         = "common"
+	DefaultDeploymentStrategy        = "Recreate"
+	DefaultAutoProvision             = true
+	OpenShiftDirectNamespaceCreation = false
 
 	// Ingress
 	DefaultSelfSignedCertificateSecretName = "self-signed-certificate"

pkg/deploy/server/server_configmap.go

@@ -38,18 +38,19 @@ import (
 )
 
 type CheConfigMap struct {
-	JavaOpts                 string `json:"JAVA_OPTS"`
-	CheHost                  string `json:"CHE_HOST"`
-	ChePort                  string `json:"CHE_PORT"`
-	CheDebugServer           string `json:"CHE_DEBUG_SERVER"`
-	CheLogLevel              string `json:"CHE_LOG_LEVEL"`
-	CheMetricsEnabled        string `json:"CHE_METRICS_ENABLED"`
-	CheInfrastructure        string `json:"CHE_INFRASTRUCTURE_ACTIVE"`
-	UserClusterRoles         string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_USER__CLUSTER__ROLES"`
-	NamespaceDefault         string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE_DEFAULT"`
-	NamespaceCreationAllowed string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE_CREATION__ALLOWED"`
-	Http2Disable             string `json:"HTTP2_DISABLE"`
-	KubernetesLabels         string `json:"KUBERNETES_LABELS"`
+	JavaOpts                         string `json:"JAVA_OPTS"`
+	CheHost                          string `json:"CHE_HOST"`
+	ChePort                          string `json:"CHE_PORT"`
+	CheDebugServer                   string `json:"CHE_DEBUG_SERVER"`
+	CheLogLevel                      string `json:"CHE_LOG_LEVEL"`
+	CheMetricsEnabled                string `json:"CHE_METRICS_ENABLED"`
+	CheInfrastructure                string `json:"CHE_INFRASTRUCTURE_ACTIVE"`
+	UserClusterRoles                 string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_USER__CLUSTER__ROLES"`
+	NamespaceDefault                 string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE_DEFAULT"`
+	NamespaceCreationAllowed         string `json:"CHE_INFRA_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE_CREATION__ALLOWED"`
+	Http2Disable                     string `json:"HTTP2_DISABLE"`
+	KubernetesLabels                 string `json:"KUBERNETES_LABELS"`
+	OpenShiftDirectNamespaceCreation string `json:"CHE_INFRA_OPENSHIFT__DIRECT_NAMESPACE_CREATION"`
 
 	// TODO remove when keycloak codebase is removed from che-server component
 	CheOIDCAuthServerUrl string `json:"CHE_OIDC_AUTH__SERVER__URL,omitempty"`
@@ -136,18 +137,26 @@ func (s *CheServerReconciler) getConfigMapData(ctx *chetypes.DeployContext) (che
 
 	kubernetesLabels := labels.FormatLabels(deploy.GetLabels(defaults.GetCheFlavor()))
 
+	openShiftDirectNamespaceCreation := strconv.FormatBool(
+		pointer.BoolDeref(
+			ctx.CheCluster.Spec.DevEnvironments.DefaultNamespace.DirectNamespaceCreation,
+			constants.OpenShiftDirectNamespaceCreation,
+		),
+	)
+
 	data := &CheConfigMap{
-		JavaOpts:                 javaOpts,
-		CheHost:                  ctx.CheHost,
-		ChePort:                  chePort,
-		CheDebugServer:           cheDebugServer,
-		CheLogLevel:              cheLogLevel,
-		CheMetricsEnabled:        cheMetricsEnabled,
-		CheInfrastructure:        cheInfrastructure,
-		CheOIDCAuthServerUrl:     ctx.CheCluster.Spec.Networking.Auth.IdentityProviderURL,
-		NamespaceDefault:         namespaceDefault,
-		NamespaceCreationAllowed: namespaceCreationAllowed,
-		KubernetesLabels:         kubernetesLabels,
+		JavaOpts:                         javaOpts,
+		CheHost:                          ctx.CheHost,
+		ChePort:                          chePort,
+		CheDebugServer:                   cheDebugServer,
+		CheLogLevel:                      cheLogLevel,
+		CheMetricsEnabled:                cheMetricsEnabled,
+		CheInfrastructure:                cheInfrastructure,
+		CheOIDCAuthServerUrl:             ctx.CheCluster.Spec.Networking.Auth.IdentityProviderURL,
+		NamespaceDefault:                 namespaceDefault,
+		NamespaceCreationAllowed:         namespaceCreationAllowed,
+		KubernetesLabels:                 kubernetesLabels,
+		OpenShiftDirectNamespaceCreation: openShiftDirectNamespaceCreation,
 		// Disable HTTP2 protocol.
 		// Fix issue with creating config maps on the cluster https://issues.redhat.com/browse/CRW-2677
 		// The root cause is in the HTTP2 protocol support of the okttp3 library that is used by fabric8.kubernetes-client that is used by che-server

pkg/deploy/server/server_configmap_test.go

@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ func TestGetConfigMapData(t *testing.T) {
 				"KUBERNETES_LABELS":                                labels.FormatLabels(deploy.GetLabels(defaults.GetCheFlavor())),
 				"HTTP2_DISABLE":                                    "true",
 				"CHE_OIDC_AUTH__SERVER__URL":                       "http://identity-provider",
+				"CHE_INFRA_OPENSHIFT__DIRECT_NAMESPACE_CREATION":   "false",
 			},
 		},
 	}