We need to decouple the Helm Base Image build code from the Operator SDK downstream (and possibly upstream repositories). Additionally, we should extract the Ansible base image build code into the same repository. This would result in a completely separate, distinct, easily maintainable "operator base images" repository that is dedicated to building ONLY the supported base images for operators running on OpenShift.

Below is context resultant from online and in person discussions:

1. osdk repo should contain ONLY the code for the osdk binary
2. we should have a repo specifically for base images: helm and ansible, that are dedicated to building the runtime environments needed for either type of operator
3. ansible plugin should have its own repo with base image build code decoupled
4. helm plugin can ** be decoupled into its own repo, but afaik its already deprecated in the upstream and no customers are really asking for it. Just the maintenance of the base image.

So in the end we would see:

• OSDK repo - to sustaining to maintain the binary through the 4.18 EUS
• base images repo - maybe to sustaining, but needs to be maintained for the forseeable future.
• ansible plugin repo - continues to be maintained, may need new features, should be generic enough to integrate with Kubebuilder.

Slack thread