Feature flags API

  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab Self-Managed

This API is for managing Flipper-based feature flags used in development of GitLab.

All methods require administrator authorization.

Notice that the API only supports boolean and percentage-of-time gate values.

List all features

Get a list of all persisted features, with its gate values.

GET /features
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/features"

Example response:

[
  {
    "name": "experimental_feature",
    "state": "off",
    "gates": [
      {
        "key": "boolean",
        "value": false
      }
    ],
    "definition": null
  },
  {
    "name": "my_user_feature",
    "state": "on",
    "gates": [
      {
        "key": "percentage_of_actors",
        "value": 34
      }
    ],
    "definition": {
      "name": "my_user_feature",
      "introduced_by_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/40880",
      "rollout_issue_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/244905",
      "group": "group::ci",
      "type": "development",
      "default_enabled": false
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "new_library",
    "state": "on",
    "gates": [
      {
        "key": "boolean",
        "value": true
      }
    ],
    "definition": null
  }
]

List all feature definitions

Get a list of all feature definitions.

GET /features/definitions
curl --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/features/definitions"

Example response:

[
  {
    "name": "geo_pages_deployment_replication",
    "introduced_by_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/68662",
    "rollout_issue_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/337676",
    "milestone": "14.3",
    "log_state_changes": null,
    "type": "development",
    "group": "group::geo",
    "default_enabled": true
  }
]

Set or create a feature

Set a feature’s gate value. If a feature with the given name doesn’t exist yet, it’s created. The value can be a boolean, or an integer to indicate percentage of time.

Before you enable a feature still in development, you should understand the security and stability risks.

POST /features/:name
AttributeTypeRequiredDescription
namestringyesName of the feature to create or update
valueinteger/stringyestrue or false to enable/disable, or an integer for percentage of time
keystringnopercentage_of_actors or percentage_of_time (default)
feature_groupstringnoA Feature group name
userstringnoA GitLab username or comma-separated multiple usernames
groupstringnoA GitLab group’s path, for example gitlab-org, or comma-separated multiple group paths
namespacestringnoA GitLab group or user namespace’s path, for example john-doe, or comma-separated multiple namespace paths. Introduced in GitLab 15.0.
projectstringnoA projects path, for example gitlab-org/gitlab-foss, or comma-separated multiple project paths
repositorystringnoA repository path, for example gitlab-org/gitlab-test.git, gitlab-org/gitlab-test.wiki.git, , snippets/21.git, to name a few. Use comma to separate multiple repository paths
forcebooleannoSkip feature flag validation checks, such as a YAML definition

You can enable or disable a feature for a feature_group, a user, a group, a namespace, a project, and a repository in a single API call.

curl --data "value=30" --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>" "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/features/new_library"

Example response:

{
  "name": "new_library",
  "state": "conditional",
  "gates": [
    {
      "key": "boolean",
      "value": false
    },
    {
      "key": "percentage_of_time",
      "value": 30
    }
  ],
  "definition": {
    "name": "my_user_feature",
    "introduced_by_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/40880",
    "rollout_issue_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/244905",
    "group": "group::ci",
    "type": "development",
    "default_enabled": false
  }
}

Set percentage of actors rollout

Rollout to percentage of actors.

POST https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/features/my_user_feature?private_token=<your_access_token>
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
value=42&key=percentage_of_actors&

Example response:

{
  "name": "my_user_feature",
  "state": "conditional",
  "gates": [
    {
      "key": "boolean",
      "value": false
    },
    {
      "key": "percentage_of_actors",
      "value": 42
    }
  ],
  "definition": {
    "name": "my_user_feature",
    "introduced_by_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/40880",
    "rollout_issue_url": "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/244905",
    "group": "group::ci",
    "type": "development",
    "default_enabled": false
  }
}

Rolls out the my_user_feature to 42% of actors.

Delete a feature

Removes a feature gate. Response is equal when the gate exists, or doesn’t.

DELETE /features/:name