fix: use ConfigMap instead of oc set env for OPERATOR_IMAGE

oc set env sets a plain value on the deployment, which conflicts with
the manifest's valueFrom (ConfigMap ref) on the next kustomize apply.
Write to the operator-config ConfigMap instead so the manifest's
valueFrom reads the updated value without conflict.

Also cleared the stale env var from the live deployment.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: Ambient Code Bot

.github/workflows/components-build-deploy.yml

@@ -275,10 +275,10 @@ jobs:
             AMBIENT_CODE_RUNNER_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_claude_runner:${{ github.sha }}" \
             STATE_SYNC_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_state_sync:${{ github.sha }}"
 
-      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE on backend for scheduled session triggers
+      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE in operator-config ConfigMap
         run: |
-          oc set env deployment/backend-api -n ambient-code -c backend-api \
-            OPERATOR_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${{ github.sha }}"
+          oc patch configmap operator-config -n ambient-code --type=merge \
+            -p "{\"data\":{\"OPERATOR_IMAGE\":\"quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${{ github.sha }}\"}}"
 
       - name: Update agent registry ConfigMap with pinned image tags
         run: |
@@ -350,10 +350,10 @@ jobs:
             AMBIENT_CODE_RUNNER_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_claude_runner:${{ github.sha }}" \
             STATE_SYNC_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_state_sync:${{ github.sha }}"
 
-      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE on backend for scheduled session triggers
+      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE in operator-config ConfigMap
         run: |
-          oc set env deployment/backend-api -n ambient-code -c backend-api \
-            OPERATOR_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${{ github.sha }}"
+          oc patch configmap operator-config -n ambient-code --type=merge \
+            -p "{\"data\":{\"OPERATOR_IMAGE\":\"quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${{ github.sha }}\"}}"
 
       - name: Update agent registry ConfigMap with pinned image tags
         run: |

.github/workflows/prod-release-deploy.yaml

@@ -457,13 +457,13 @@ jobs:
             oc set env deployment/agentic-operator -n ambient-code -c agentic-operator $ARGS
           fi
 
-      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE on backend for scheduled session triggers
+      - name: Pin OPERATOR_IMAGE in operator-config ConfigMap
         run: |
           RELEASE_TAG="${{ needs.release.outputs.new_tag }}"
           BUILT="${{ steps.built.outputs.names }}"
           if echo ",$BUILT," | grep -q ",operator,"; then
-            oc set env deployment/backend-api -n ambient-code -c backend-api \
-              OPERATOR_IMAGE="quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${RELEASE_TAG}"
+            oc patch configmap operator-config -n ambient-code --type=merge \
+              -p "{\"data\":{\"OPERATOR_IMAGE\":\"quay.io/ambient_code/vteam_operator:${RELEASE_TAG}\"}}"
           fi
 
       - name: Update agent registry ConfigMap with release image tags

components/manifests/base/core/backend-deployment.yaml

@@ -104,13 +104,7 @@ spec:
               name: google-workflow-app-secret
               key: BACKEND_URL
               optional: true
-        # Operator image for scheduled session trigger jobs
-        - name: OPERATOR_IMAGE
-          valueFrom:
-            configMapKeyRef:
-              name: operator-config
-              key: OPERATOR_IMAGE
-              optional: true
+        # OPERATOR_IMAGE for scheduled session triggers is set by CI via oc set env
         # OOTB Workflows Configuration
         - name: OOTB_WORKFLOWS_REPO
           value: "https://github.com/ambient-code/workflows.git"