Feature flags, or feature toggles, are a gold standard of Agile software development and Continuous Integration for good reason: they help teams deliver new features to customers safely, and with better control. If you’ve ever needed to validate new functionality with end-users (hint: test code in production!), quickly roll back a change, or run an A/B test on a feature, you might be a fan of feature flags too. They help de-risk feature releases and code deployment.
But as a DevOps engineer, feature flag management can also give you heartburn. When they’re mismanaged, you can end up with a codebase littered with old, forgotten feature flags that actually introduce risk.