Feature Flags

Flags decouple deploy from release—and become debt if never removed. Taxonomy, ownership, and retirement matter as much as targeting.

When to Offer This Workflow

Trigger conditions:

• Gradual rollouts, kill switches, or experiments behind flags
• Flag sprawl and unknown defaults
• Client vs server evaluation and hydration flicker

Initial offer:

Use six stages: (1) taxonomy, (2) targeting rules, (3) evaluation & consistency, (4) safety & ops, (5) lifecycle & cleanup, (6) governance). Confirm provider (LaunchDarkly, Unleash, ConfigCat, homegrown).

Stage 1: Taxonomy