Creating Your First Flag

This guide walks you through creating a feature flag in the Flagpool dashboard.

Accessing the Dashboard

1. Log in to app.flagpool.io
2. Select your project (or create a new one)
3. Navigate to Flags in the sidebar

Creating a New Flag

Step 1: Click "New Flag"

Click the New Flag button in the top right corner of the Flags page.

Step 2: Configure Basic Settings

Field	Description	Example
Key	Unique identifier used in code	new-checkout-flow
Name	Human-readable name	New Checkout Flow
Description	Optional description	Enables the redesigned checkout experience
Type	Flag value type	Boolean, String, Number, JSON

Flag keys should be lowercase with hyphens. They cannot be changed after creation.

Step 3: Set the Flag Type

Choose the appropriate type for your flag:

• Boolean — simple on/off flags (most common)
• String — for A/B tests with string variations
• Number — for numeric configurations
• JSON — for complex configurations

Step 4: Configure Default Values

Set the default value that will be returned when the flag is:

• Off — returned when the flag is disabled
• On — returned when the flag is enabled and no targeting rules match

For boolean flags:

• Off value: false
• On value: true

Flag States

Each flag has an enabled/disabled toggle per environment:

State	Behavior
Disabled	Always returns the "off" value
Enabled	Evaluates targeting rules, returns "on" value if rules match

Environment-Specific Configuration

Flags can be configured differently per environment:

1. Select an environment tab (Development, Staging, Production)
2. Toggle the flag on/off for that environment
3. Configure environment-specific targeting rules

Changes in one environment don't affect other environments. Always test in Development or Staging before Production.

Organizing Flags with Tags

Add tags to organize and filter flags:

1. Click Add Tag when creating or editing a flag
2. Enter tag names (e.g., checkout, experiment, mobile)
3. Use tags to filter flags in the dashboard

Best Practices

Naming Conventions

✓ new-checkout-flow
✓ enable-dark-mode
✓ max-upload-size
✓ experiment-pricing-v2

✗ newCheckoutFlow (avoid camelCase)
✗ flag1 (not descriptive)
✗ test (too generic)

Grouping with Underscores

Use an underscore (_) in your flag key to automatically group flags in the dashboard. The text before the underscore becomes the group name, and flags within the same group are displayed together in a collapsible directory structure.

backend_new-checkout-flow
backend_enable-rate-limiting
frontend_dark-mode
frontend_redesigned-nav
experiment_pricing-v2

Groups are filterable in the dashboard, making it easy to manage large projects with many flags across different domains. This is especially useful for separating concerns — for example, grouping flags by team (payments_, growth_), by layer (api_, ui_), or by purpose (experiment_, ops_).

Flag Lifecycle

1. Create the flag before deploying code that uses it
2. Test in Development environment
3. Validate in Staging with real-world conditions
4. Roll out gradually in Production
5. Clean up by removing flag code once fully deployed

Next Steps

• Using Flags in Code — implement flags in your application
• SDK Reference — explore all SDK capabilities