Docs feedback: List of GitLab's available feature flags and how to enable them
Situation
GitLab uses feature flags internally from time to time for new features. An example of this are the productivity analytics introduced in GitLab 12.3. The page https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/analytics/ for example currently has the following:
So then, I can click on feature flag to get the following, which perhaps makes sense to GitLab developers but it not clear for administrators of self-hosted instances.
Running rails c in the usual location, that is the root of the gitlab repo, of course results in -bash: rails: command not found.
Effectively the administrator has a few questions:
- What feature flags are available?
- How do I enable/disable them?
- Are there any risks (stability, etc) to enabling feature flags disabled by default?
The way I see it there are two (obvious) solution to this.
Solution A
Likely the least amount of work, but probably the highest maintenance burden long-term.
-
Add a list of all feature flags currently available, so self-hosted customers can easily enable/disable features to achieve a desired configuration. (Perhaps this page can also archive old feature flags for historical reasons?) -
Add a page for how to enable/disable feature flags for the end-user (not GitLab developers), which would typically be the administrator of a self-hosted GitLab instance. Instructions should be added for all supported installation types.
Solution B
Likely more work now, but should be low maintenance afterwards.
-
Add an extra page Features in developmentor similar to the admin area, where the administrator can see all available feature flags and toggle them easily. If needed there can be a disclaimer such as "Warning: This feature is in development" per feature flag or possibly a warning for the entire page.
This approach removes the need to separate documentation of available feature flags and how to toggle them.

