Feature Flag Gate Skill

The fastest rollback is not a git revert. It is a flag toggle. A revert requires a new build, a new deployment, and pipeline time. A flag toggle takes seconds. This skill ensures that user-facing changes ship with that option available.

This directly protects two DORA metrics: Change Failure Rate (you can turn it off before it spreads) and Mean Time to Restore (seconds to dark, not minutes to redeploy).

What Requires a Feature Flag

A feature flag is required when the change:

• Introduces or modifies behavior a user can see, click, or trigger
• Adds or modifies an API endpoint that external clients call
• Changes a pricing, permission, or access control path
• Affects a background job that processes user data
• Introduces a new integration with a third-party service
• Is being rolled out to a percentage of users rather than all at once