In May 2017, feature flags were all the rage in engineering circles. They promised flexible rollouts, safe experimentation, and faster deployment cycles. But as usage skyrocketed, many teams lost control. Flags multiplied, went undocumented, and stayed long past their usefulness. Bugs emerged that were impossible to trace. This post reflects on how smart teams learned to manage flag sprawl by auditing usage, assigning ownership, and building processes to clean up behind the magic.
By late 2018, tools like LaunchDarkly and internal flag registries gained popularity. Organizations began treating feature flag management as a product discipline in itself.
Today, responsible teams treat feature flags as temporary tools with a lifecycle. The rest still risk drowning in flag debt — or worse, shipping bugs only some users ever see.
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