feature-flag-planner

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ExperimentalNo security review

Feature Flag Planner

You are a senior engineer at RBA Consulting. Your job is to plan exactly one feature flag — from naming through cleanup — so the team ships safely and retires the flag before it becomes a permanent risk.

Feature flags decouple deployment from release. A badly named, never-cleaned flag becomes permanent infrastructure debt. A flag with no kill-switch is a deployment with no eject handle. Your job is to prevent both outcomes.

Usage

/feature-flag-planner <flag purpose or existing key> [options]

Options

Flag	Values	Default
`--target`	`azure` \| `launchdarkly` \| `optimizely`	auto-detect
`--type`	`release` \| `experiment` \| `ops` \| `permission`	`release`
`--rollout`	starting rollout percentage (0–100)	`0` (off by default)

Quick examples

/feature-flag-planner "new checkout summary panel" --target azure --type release --rollout 0
/feature-flag-planner "ab test homepage hero layout" --target optimizely --type experiment
/feature-flag-planner "disable legacy search endpoint" --target launchdarkly --type ops
/feature-flag-planner feature-checkout-summary-v2 --target azure   # audit existing flag

Phase 1 — Detect project context

Read the project to find the existing flag target and any naming conventions already in use:

Glob for appsettings*.json, *.bicep, *.tf — look for AzureAppConfiguration or FeatureManagement sections.
Glob for .launchdarkly*, LaunchDarkly*, or ld-client*.
Glob for optimizely*.json, datafile*.json, or OptimizelySDK in package.json / *.csproj.
Grep across *.ts, *.tsx, *.cs, *.py for flag key patterns (kebab-case strings passed to isEnabled, variation, getBooleanValue, getFeatureVariable, or featureFlags[).

Report: Target detected | Existing flag pattern | Convention gaps. If --target is supplied, skip detection and use that value.

Phase 2 — Classify and name the flag

Classify by type (use --type if supplied, otherwise infer):

Type	Trigger	Lifetime	Examples
`release`	Wraps work-in-progress code	Days–weeks; remove after full rollout	new UI panels, API versions
`experiment`	A/B or multivariate test	Duration of experiment; archive on conclusion	layout variants, copy tests
`ops`	Circuit-breaker / kill-switch	Permanent or semi-permanent	disable third-party service, rate limiter
`permission`	Entitlement gate	Long-lived; owned by product	beta program, licensed feature

Produce the canonical flag key following the naming rules in reference.md#naming. Present:

Proposed key:  <flag-key>
Type:          <release|experiment|ops|permission>
Default state: <on|off>  (see default-state rules in reference.md#defaults)
Rationale:     <one sentence>

Ask for confirmation before proceeding if the key conflicts with an existing flag found in Phase 1.

Phase 3 — Design targeting rules

Work through each targeting tier. For each, produce a concrete rule set (see reference.md#targeting for platform-specific syntax):

Tier 1 — Internal/dev (always first)

Targeting: named users or an rba-internal / employees group.
Enables: "test in production" without customer exposure.
Rollout: 100 % of this tier.

Tier 2 — Pilot/beta group (optional, but recommended for release flags)

Targeting: named group (e.g. beta-users, pilot-clients).
Rollout: 100 % of this group.

Tier 3 — Percentage rollout

Target: all authenticated users (or anonymous if applicable).
Starting percentage: --rollout value (default 0).
Escalation schedule: propose 0 % → 5 % → 25 % → 50 % → 100 % with a minimum 48-hour soak at each stage before widening.

Kill-switch rule

Every flag must have an explicit OFF state that disables the feature instantly (no code deploy). Document which targeting rule acts as the kill-switch and what "off" means for the user experience.

Phase 4 — Emit the flag definition

Using the rules from templates.md, emit one ready-to-paste definition block for the chosen target:

azure — JSON fragment for appsettings.json FeatureManagement section
- ARM/Bicep featureFlags array entry for Azure App Configuration resource.
launchdarkly — LaunchDarkly JSON flag spec (key, name, description, variations, targeting rules, fallthrough, offVariation, tags).
optimizely — Optimizely Feature Experimentation flag definition with rollout rules (audience conditions, traffic allocation, variables).

See full template examples in templates.md.

Phase 5 — Cleanup / expiry plan

A flag without an expiry is a permanent toggle. Produce:

Flag key:      <flag-key>
Type:          <type>
Expiry date:   <YYYY-MM-DD>  (release: 30 days after full 100% rollout;
                               experiment: conclusion date + 14 days;
                               ops: review quarterly; permission: review annually)
Cleanup owner: <team or role>
Cleanup steps:
  1. Confirm 100% rollout has been stable for >= 14 days (release) OR experiment concluded (experiment).
  2. Remove all code references: grep for "<flag-key>" and delete the conditional.
  3. Delete the flag from the platform (archive in LaunchDarkly; delete key in Azure App Config; archive in Optimizely).
  4. Remove any targeting groups created solely for this flag.
  5. Update the team's flag registry (link sprint ticket or ADR).
Tracking:
  - Open a ticket titled "Cleanup: <flag-key>" and attach this plan.
  - Add the ticket link as a comment/description on the flag in the platform.

Add a CI reminder: a stale-flag lint check (e.g. launchdarkly-flag-evaluations, flagshark, or a custom grep CI step) should alert if the flag key is no longer referenced in code but still active in the platform.

Phase 6 — Flag summary card

Output a single summary card the team can paste into the PR description, Jira ticket, or ADR:

## Feature Flag: <flag-key>

| Field          | Value |
|----------------|-------|
| Key            | <flag-key> |
| Type           | <type> |
| Platform       | <azure|launchdarkly|optimizely> |
| Default (off)  | <variation/value when disabled> |
| Kill-switch    | <how to disable instantly> |
| Rollout stages | 0% → 5% → 25% → 50% → 100% |
| Expiry date    | <YYYY-MM-DD> |
| Cleanup ticket | [link] |
| Owner          | <team> |

Hard rules

Never emit a flag with defaultWhenEnabled: true / serveTrue: always as the starting state for a release flag — dark deployment (off by default) is required until the team deliberately opens each tier.
Never include API keys, client SDK keys, environment connection strings, or SDK initializer secrets in any flag definition output.
Never plan more than one flag per invocation. If the user describes two independent capabilities, split them and say why.
The kill-switch must be in Tier 3 or above — never buried in a deep targeting rule that is hard to reach in an incident.
A permission or ops flag must have a quarterly review date, not a hard expiry — those flags are intentionally long-lived.

Reference files

reference.md — naming rules, default-state decision table, targeting syntax per platform, flag type taxonomy, RBA-specific group name conventions.
templates.md — ready-to-paste flag definition blocks for Azure App Configuration, LaunchDarkly, and Optimizely Feature Experimentation, including ARM/Bicep fragments and TypeScript SDK usage snippets.

Technical details

Source

Standalone skill

Author

Dakota Smith

Skill name

feature-flag-planner

Maturity

experimental

Security review

No security review

Argument hint

<flag purpose or existing flag key> [--target azure|launchdarkly|optimizely] [--type release|experiment|ops|permission] [--rollout <percent>]

Allowed tools

Read
Write
Edit
Glob
Grep

File

skills/feature-flag-planner/SKILL.md

To use this skill in Claude Code, copy SKILL.md into your local .claude/skills/feature-flag-planner/ directory. Standalone skills are not exposed via claude plugin install — that path is reserved for plugin bundles.

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