Flagsmith / Flagsmith/flagsmith-nodejs-client
Feature values always have type string when using local evaluation mode
- Dominant language
- TypeScript
- Stars
- 30
- Forks
- 26
- Avg merge
- 11m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 5
Description
We've started seeing an issue where number values like this one are being returned as type `string` when `enableLocalEvaluation` is set to `true`.

Using this test script I've validated that the local evaluation causes the change in behaviour (thanks Matt for the help 🙌 )
This has been tested on `flagsmith-nodejs` versions `2.5.1` and `3.2.0`
```ts
import Flagsmith from 'flagsmith-nodejs';
async function main(): Promise {
const flagClient = new Flagsmith({
environmentKey: 'ser.key',
enableLocalEvaluation: true,
enableAnalytics: false,
});
const environmentFlags = await flagClient.getEnvironmentFlags();
const flag = environmentFlags.getFlag('daisy.settlements.timeout');
console.log(`flagClient.apiUrl=${flagClient.apiUrl}`);
console.log(`flagClient.enableLocalEvaluation=${flagClient.enableLocalEvaluation}`);
console.log(JSON.stringify(flag));
console.log(`typeof flag.value=${typeof flag.value}`);
await flagClient.close();
}
void main();
```
`enableLocalEvaluation=true`
```
flagClient.apiUrl=https://edge.api.flagsmith.com/api/v1/
flagClient.enableLocalEvaluation=true
{"value":"60000","enabled":true,"isDefault":false,"featureId":62178,"featureName":"daisy.settlements.timeout"}
typeof flag.value=string
```
`enableLocalEvaluation=false`
```
flagClient.apiUrl=https://edge.api.flagsmith.com/api/v1/
flagClient.enableLocalEvaluation=false
{"value":60000,"enabled":true,"isDefault":false,"featureId":62178,"featureName":"daisy.settlements.timeout"}
typeof flag.value=number
```
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start with the Flagsmith client path exercised by getEnvironmentFlags() and getFlag() when enableLocalEvaluation is true, using the provided TypeScript script to reproduce the differing value types. Compare the local-evaluation result with the API result and verify that numeric feature values retain their number type in both modes.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- nodejs, typescript
- Domain
- backend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100