featuregated

Featuregated is a software development concept describing the practice of gating new or experimental functionality behind a toggle or gate that controls its availability. In a featuregated system, code for a feature can be deployed with the rest of the application, but its activation is determined at runtime by a feature flag, configuration setting, or rules in a feature management system. This separation of deployment and activation supports safer, slower releases and experimentation.

Gates can be global or scoped by user, group, environment, or rollout percentage. Common patterns include progressive rollout (gradually enabling the feature for increasing fractions of users), dark launches (deploying a feature without exposing it to users), and canary testing (exposing new behavior to a small subset before broader release).

Implementations range from simple in-code conditions to dedicated feature flagging services that provide dashboards, targeting rules, and dynamic toggles. Runtime gating reduces blast radius, enables quick rollback, and supports A/B testing. However, it also introduces complexity, technical debt, and potential performance or security considerations if gates are not well managed.

Key considerations include ensuring consistent gating state across distributed components, handling configuration drift, auditing feature state changes, and ensuring the default state remains safe when toggles fail. Teams should establish guidelines for naming, lifecycle, and retirement of gates to prevent feature creep.

See also: feature flag, feature toggle, canary release, A/B testing, feature management.