[FF] `budget_caps_graphql_api` -- Gates budget caps GraphQL query and mutation API

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Summary

This issue is to roll out the feature on production, that is currently behind the budget_caps_graphql_api feature flag.

Owners

  • Most appropriate Slack channel to reach out to: #g_utilization
  • Best individual to reach out to: @suraj_tripathy

Expectations

What are we expecting to happen?

When enabled, the budget_caps_graphql_api feature flag exposes a GraphQL query and mutation for reading and writing budget cap controls (subscription caps, flat user caps, per-user overrides). Data is proxied to/from CustomersDot. No database writes on the GitLab side.

What can go wrong and how would we detect it?

  • CustomersDot unavailability: If CDot is down, the query returns null for budgetCaps and mutations return errors. This is expected degradation — no data loss.
  • Auth misconfiguration: Wrong users could be granted or denied access. Monitored via existing subscription usage dashboards.
  • No stability/availability impact: This is a new additive API field. Existing subscriptionUsage query behavior is unchanged when the flag is disabled.

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 has been deployed to non-production environments with /chatops gitlab run auto_deploy status <merge-commit-of-your-feature>
  • Enable the feature globally on non-production environments with /chatops gitlab run feature set budget_caps_graphql_api 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.

Before production rollout

  • If the change is significant and you wanted to announce in #whats-happening-at-gitlab, it best to do it before rollout to gitlab-org/gitlab-com.

Specific rollout on production

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

  • Depending on the type of actor you are using, pick one of these options:
    • For all internal users: /chatops gitlab run feature set --feature-group=gitlab_team_members budget_caps_graphql_api true
  • Verify that the feature works for the specific actors.

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.
  • Ensure that you or a representative in development can be available for at least 2 hours after feature flag updates in production.
  • Ensure that documentation exists for the feature, and the version history text has been updated.
  • Notify the #support_gitlab-com Slack channel and your team channel.

Global rollout on production

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

Release the feature

After the feature has been deemed stable, the clean up should be done as soon as possible to permanently enable the feature and reduce complexity in the codebase.

  • Create a merge request to remove the budget_caps_graphql_api feature flag.
  • Ensure that the cleanup MR has been included in the release package.
  • Close the feature issue to indicate the feature will be released in the current milestone.
  • Once the cleanup MR has been deployed to production, clean up the feature flag from all environments: /chatops gitlab run feature delete budget_caps_graphql_api --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
  • Close this rollout issue.

Rollback Steps

  • This feature can be disabled on production by running the following Chatops command:
/chatops gitlab run feature set budget_caps_graphql_api false
  • Disable the feature flag on non-production environments:
/chatops gitlab run feature set budget_caps_graphql_api false --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref
  • Delete feature flag from all environments:
/chatops gitlab run feature delete budget_caps_graphql_api --dev --pre --staging --staging-ref --production
Edited by Suraj Tripathi