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[Feature flag] Enable v2_chat_agent_integration

Summary

This issue is to roll out Switch to Chat Agent V2 (&13533 - closed) on production, that is currently behind the v2_chat_agent_integration feature flag.

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #duo-chat-lounge
  • Best individual to reach out to: @shinya.maeda

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

Switching to Chat Agent V2 from V1 as described in Switch to Chat Agent V2 (&13533 - closed).

What can go wrong and how would we detect it?

Increase of wrong answers from chat, higher latency. It could be detected during daily evaluation runs or by interacting with the chat

Monitoring

See Duo Chat runbook for more information.

Rollout Steps

Note: Please make sure to run the chatops commands in the Slack channel that gets impacted by the command.

Rollout on non-production environments

  • Verify the MR with the feature flag is merged to master and have been deployed to non-production environments with /chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>
  • Deploy the feature flag at a percentage (recommended percentage: 50%) with /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration <rollout-percentage> --actors --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Monitor that the error rates did not increase (repeat with a different percentage as necessary).
  • Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration true --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Verify that the feature works as expected. The best environment to validate the feature in is staging-canary as this is the first environment deployed to. Make sure you are configured to use canary.
  • If the feature flag causes end-to-end tests to fail, disable the feature flag on staging to avoid blocking deployments.
    • See #qa-staging Slack channel and look for the following messages:
      • test kicked off: Feature flag <feature-flag-name> has been set to true on **gstg**
      • test result: This pipeline was triggered due to toggling of v2_chat_agent_integration feature flag

For assistance with end-to-end test failures, please reach out via the #test-platform Slack channel. Note that end-to-end test failures on staging-ref don't block deployments.

Specific rollout on production

For visibility, all /chatops commands that target production should be executed in the #production Slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's Slack channel.

  • Ensure that the feature MRs have been deployed to both production and canary with /chatops run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>
  • Depending on the type of actor you are using, pick one of these options:
  • For user-actor: /chatops run feature set --user=brytannia v2_chat_agent_integration true
  • Verify that the feature works for the specific actors.

Specific rollout on GitLab team members on production

Enable:

/chatops run feature set --feature-group=gitlab_team_members v2_chat_agent_integration true

Disable:

/chatops run feature set --feature-group=gitlab_team_members v2_chat_agent_integration false

How to disable the feature flag for a specific user

/chatops run feature set --user=<your-user-name> v2_chat_agent_integration_override true

Important: The flag name is v2_chat_agent_integration_override. It's NOT v2_chat_agent_integration.

We have a flag for Selectively disable by actor so that we can disable the flag for a specific user while we keep enabling the flag for the rest of the users. This is to take a balance between collecting bug reports by exposing the V2 feature as long as possible and de-risking the feature use in urgency.

For example, if you're in the sales division and need to demonstrate the Duo Chat for customers but the feature is not working at the moment, this feature flag can be disabled only for you. Please reach out the @gitlab-org/ai-powered/duo-chat team for the assistance.

See Introduce a new flag for "Selectively disable b... (#484753 - closed) for more information.

Preparation before global rollout

  • Set a milestone to this rollout issue to signal for enabling and removing the feature flag when it is stable.
  • Check if the feature flag change needs to be accompanied with a change management issue. Cross link the issue here if it does.
  • Ensure that you or a representative in development can be available for at least 2 hours after feature flag updates in production. If a different developer will be covering, or an exception is needed, please inform the oncall SRE by using the @sre-oncall Slack alias.
  • Ensure that documentation exists for the feature, and the version history text has been updated.
  • Leave a comment on the feature issue announcing estimated time when this feature flag will be enabled on GitLab.com.
  • Ensure that any breaking changes have been announced following the release post process to ensure GitLab customers are aware.
  • Notify the #support_gitlab-com Slack channel and your team channel (more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs).
  • Ensure that the feature flag rollout plan is reviewed by another developer familiar with the domain.

Global rollout on production

For visibility, all /chatops commands that target production should be executed in the #production Slack channel and cross-posted (with the command results) to the responsible team's Slack channel (#<slack-channel-of-dri-team>).

  • Incrementally roll out the feature on production environment.
    • Between every step wait for at least 15 minutes and monitor the appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net.
    • Perform actor-based rollout: /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration 25 --actors
    • Perform actor-based rollout: /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration 50 --actors
    • Perform actor-based rollout: /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration 75 --actors
  • Enable the feature globally on production environment: /chatops run feature set v2_chat_agent_integration true
  • Observe appropriate graphs on https://dashboards.gitlab.net and verify that services are not affected.
  • Leave a comment on [the feature issue][main-issue] announcing that the feature has been globally enabled.
  • Wait for at least one day for the verification term.

(Optional) Release the feature with the feature flag

WARNING: This approach has the downside that it makes it difficult for us to clean up the flag. For example, on-premise users could disable the feature on their GitLab instance. But when you remove the flag at some point, they suddenly see the feature as enabled and they can't roll it back to the previous behavior. To avoid this potential breaking change, use this approach only for urgent matters.

If you're still unsure whether the feature is deemed stable but want to release it in the current milestone, you can change the default state of the feature flag to be enabled. To do so, follow these steps:

  • Create a merge request with the following changes. Ask for review and merge it.
    • If feature was enabled for various actors, ensure the feature has been enabled globally on production /chatops run feature get <feature-flag-name>. If the feature has not been globally enabled then enable the feature globally using: /chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> true
    • Set the default_enabled attribute in the feature flag definition to true.
    • Decide which changelog entry is needed.
  • Ensure that the default-enabling MR has been included in the release package. If the merge request was deployed before the monthly release was tagged, the feature can be officially announced in a release blog post: /chatops run release check <merge-request-url> <milestone>
  • Consider cleaning up the feature flag from all environments by running these chatops command in #production channel. Otherwise these settings may override the default enabled: /chatops run feature delete <feature-flag-name> --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
  • Close [the feature issue][main-issue] to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone.
  • Set the next milestone to this rollout issue for scheduling the flag removal.
  • (Optional) You can create a separate issue for scheduling the steps below to Release the feature.
    • Set the title to "[Feature flag] Cleanup <feature-flag-name>".
    • Execute the /copy_metadata <this-rollout-issue-link> quick action to copy the labels from this rollout issue.
    • Link this rollout issue as a related issue.
    • Close this rollout issue.

Rollback Steps

  • Delete feature flag from all environments:
/chatops run feature delete v2_chat_agent_integration --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
Edited by Shinya Maeda