It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
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It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
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Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#2[dead]
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#3note that this is a "pre-november 2025 opus 4.5" post folks
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#4[flagged]
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#5Hardcoding feature flags prevents you from deploying the same build with different flag sets side by side and comparing results. Depending on the nature of the project, it might be irrelevant or it might be a deal breaker. Especially in cloud environments, it's usually the latter. And everything is in the cloud nowadays.
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#6Unclear how the arguments against feature flags can be used to justify hardcoding them or using a JSON file to manage them. Feature flag decisions are at the end of the day, tradeoffs to solve a problem that may occur for another person at a different place/time. If you are a solo developer, hardcode, use bytes or mail your feature flags - it does not matter. If you are not, there is a lot to take care of beyond a single hardcoded json file.
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#7Why wouldn't it be? The post does a good job explaining why not only it's not a problem, but also likely desirable in many (I'd wager the vast majority) of circumstances.
Simple, effective, cheap, easy to understand and manage. Not dependent on an external service, not dependent on a third-party.
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#8I’m currently reverse engineering a large enterprise app and the feature flag bloat is truly astounding. Imho excessive feature flag complexity is a symptom of management who are indecisive and mistrusted by the developers.
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#9Do all modern compilers do tree-shaking at this point? Unless you use compiler-based flags, If you hard code them into your code, the dead code paths may still be in the shipped binary. Depending on what you are doing, the security issues mentioned in the article are still present, or you may prematurely reveal an upcoming feature.
Re: It's OK to hardcode feature flags (2025)
#10I’m currently reverse engineering a large enterprise app and the feature flag bloat is truly astounding. Imho excessive feature flag complexity is a symptom of management who are indecisive and mistrusted by the developers.
This of course depends on the quantity and the depth of these feature flags. It’s ok to hard code few of them, maybe it’s not when it becomes a practice and you have tens of them. I think you would have a much easier life if there was a standardized, well documented, way to define them.