diff --git a/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler.go b/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler.go
index 22ca1504d4..493b3ffd2e 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler.go
@@ -319,6 +319,22 @@ func Pod(source *operatorsv1alpha1.CatalogSource, name, opmImg, utilImage, img s
 			}
 			if grpcPodConfig.ExtractContent.CacheDir != "" {
 				containerArgs = append(containerArgs, "--cache-dir="+filepath.Join(catalogPath, "cache"))
+			} else {
+				// opm serve does not allow us to specify an empty cache directory, which means that it will
+				// only create new caches in /tmp/, so we need to provide adequate write access there
+				const tmpdirName = "tmpdir"
+				tmpdirVolumeMount := corev1.VolumeMount{
+					Name:      tmpdirName,
+					MountPath: "/tmp/",
+				}
+				pod.Spec.Volumes = append(pod.Spec.Volumes, corev1.Volume{
+					Name: tmpdirName,
+					VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{
+						EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{},
+					},
+				})
+
+				pod.Spec.Containers[0].VolumeMounts = append(pod.Spec.Containers[0].VolumeMounts, tmpdirVolumeMount)
 			}
 			pod.Spec.Containers[0].Args = containerArgs
 			pod.Spec.Containers[0].VolumeMounts = append(pod.Spec.Containers[0].VolumeMounts, contentVolumeMount)
diff --git a/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler_test.go b/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler_test.go
index 6079b8cb6c..601eaaad22 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/registry/reconciler/reconciler_test.go
@@ -406,7 +406,7 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 				ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
 					GenerateName: "test-",
 					Namespace:    "testns",
-					Labels:       map[string]string{"olm.pod-spec-hash": "5ToGGS7RLuy9Fq91z7IjESOJXfurg09nHAxtfK", "olm.managed": "true"},
+					Labels:       map[string]string{"olm.pod-spec-hash": "7W3t15wWurp7a9W1VVX392SnNYQu3OLbGDJ0wy", "olm.managed": "true"},
 					Annotations:  map[string]string{"cluster-autoscaler.kubernetes.io/safe-to-evict": "true"},
 				},
 				Spec: corev1.PodSpec{
@@ -419,6 +419,10 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 							Name:         "catalog-content",
 							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{}},
 						},
+						{
+							Name:         "tmpdir",
+							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{}},
+						},
 					},
 					InitContainers: []corev1.Container{
 						{
@@ -497,7 +501,7 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 							},
 							ImagePullPolicy:          image.InferImagePullPolicy("image"),
 							TerminationMessagePolicy: "FallbackToLogsOnError",
-							VolumeMounts:             []corev1.VolumeMount{{Name: "catalog-content", MountPath: "/extracted-catalog"}},
+							VolumeMounts:             []corev1.VolumeMount{{Name: "tmpdir", MountPath: "/tmp/"}, {Name: "catalog-content", MountPath: "/extracted-catalog"}},
 						},
 					},
 					NodeSelector:       map[string]string{"kubernetes.io/os": "linux"},
@@ -733,7 +737,7 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 				ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
 					GenerateName: "test-",
 					Namespace:    "testns",
-					Labels:       map[string]string{"olm.pod-spec-hash": "bhL1lOcUJhtisRddUp8tRQupbIii64C6qz9drn", "olm.managed": "true"},
+					Labels:       map[string]string{"olm.pod-spec-hash": "8ed7duDhuISxUmqWPMZfQu9rc02OOJaOeyT6ML", "olm.managed": "true"},
 					Annotations:  map[string]string{"cluster-autoscaler.kubernetes.io/safe-to-evict": "true"},
 				},
 				Spec: corev1.PodSpec{
@@ -746,6 +750,10 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 							Name:         "catalog-content",
 							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{}},
 						},
+						{
+							Name:         "tmpdir",
+							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{}},
+						},
 					},
 					InitContainers: []corev1.Container{
 						{
@@ -830,7 +838,7 @@ func TestPodExtractContent(t *testing.T) {
 								ReadOnlyRootFilesystem:   ptr.To(true),
 							},
 							TerminationMessagePolicy: "FallbackToLogsOnError",
-							VolumeMounts:             []corev1.VolumeMount{{Name: "catalog-content", MountPath: "/extracted-catalog"}},
+							VolumeMounts:             []corev1.VolumeMount{{Name: "tmpdir", MountPath: "/tmp/"}, {Name: "catalog-content", MountPath: "/extracted-catalog"}},
 						},
 					},
 					NodeSelector: map[string]string{"kubernetes.io/os": "linux"},