Code Generation

Description

Feature flags typically rely on hard coded strings to reference specific feature flags. This can be tedious to maintain in a codebase. Code generation can address this shortcoming by creating strongly typed flag accessors, minimizing configuration errors and providing a better developer experience. By generating these accessors, developers can avoid issues related to incorrect flag names or types, resulting in more reliable and maintainable code.

Goals

• Establish a standardized flag manifest format that can be easily converted from existing configurations.
  • JSON Schema (source of truth)
  • Auto-gen docs from schema and clarifying docs
• Develop a CLI tool to generate strongly typed flag accessors for multiple programming languages.
  • Create support for Java, JavaScript, Go, and Markdown
• Create a format that allows for future extensions and modularization of flags.
  • Simply adding support for new languages
    • Reduce boilerplate
    • Standardize templates format
• Create contributing documentation

Non-goals

• The initial scope does not include creating tools to convert provider-specific configurations to the new flag manifest format.
• The project won't initially focus on validating flag configurations for consistency with the flag manifest.
  • Create prototype prior to a stable release
• The project does not aim to create a general-purpose configuration tool for feature flags beyond the scope of the codegen tool.

Resources

• Repo
• Meeting schedule
• Slack