Enhance Info Endpoints to Display Feature Flag Status

ADR/Issue Template

Enhance Info Endpoints to Display Feature Flag Status

Status

Context & Scope

We frequently use the info endpoint as the first point of insight into a service’s state when diagnosing issues. Currently, the info endpoint provides details about the build, Git commit, and connected services:

{
    "groupId": "org.opengroup.osdu.indexer",
    "artifactId": "indexer-gc",
    "version": "0.29.0-SNAPSHOT",
    "buildTime": "2025-03-20T09:02:05.159Z",
    "branch": "master",
    "commitId": "1f87d4500d75286ffa0485e1a440ade47365cbd8",
    "commitMessage": "Merge branch 'fix-int-test-ordering' into 'master'",
    "connectedOuterServices": [
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "ElasticSearch-osdu",
            "version": "8.15.3"
        },
        {
            "name": "ElasticSearch-second",
            "version": "8.15.3"
        }
    ]
}

This information is insufficient when troubleshooting issues related to features controlled via Feature Flags. Challenges in Diagnosing Feature Flag Issues:

To determine the current Feature Flag state, one must:

Identify which strategy is used—property-based or partition-based. This requires checking environment variables or reviewing the source code, e.g. https://community.opengroup.org/osdu/platform/system/storage/-/blob/master/storage-core-plus/src/main/resources/application.properties#L66
If property-based, locate the flag within configuration properties and verify whether it is overridden by environment variables.
If partition-based, manually request the Feature Flag state for each partition being debugged.
Different services implement Feature Flagging in different ways, adding further complexity to debugging.

Decision

Add info about feature flag states to the info endpoint response, it might look like this:

{
    "groupId": "org.opengroup.osdu.indexer",
    "artifactId": "indexer-gc",
    "version": "0.29.0-SNAPSHOT",
    "buildTime": "2025-03-20T09:02:05.159Z",
    "branch": "master",
    "commitId": "1f87d4500d75286ffa0485e1a440ade47365cbd8",
    "commitMessage": "Merge branch 'fix-int-test-ordering' into 'master'",
    "connectedOuterServices": [
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "Redis-RedisCacheBuilder$2",
            "version": "7.2.7"
        },
        {
            "name": "ElasticSearch-osdu",
            "version": "8.15.3"
        },
        {
            "name": "ElasticSearch-second",
            "version": "8.15.3"
        }
    ],
	"featureFlagState": [
        {
            "name": "collaborations-enabled",
	    "enabled": true,
            "partition": "osdu",
	    "source": "appProperty"
        },
        {
            "name": "feature.replay.enabled",
	    "enabled": false,
            "partition": "osdu",
	    "source": "appProperty"
        }
    ]
}

Rationale

Feature flag states added to the info endpoint will ease the routine maintenance of a platform, and reduce time spent on fixing issues and debugging.

Consequences

Update VersionInfoBuilder and IFeatureFlagInterface in the Core-Common library to include information about the feature flag state in the response.
Update services that use feature flags to display the state in their output. If a service uses a custom feature flag service, it should still provide feature flag information in the info endpoint response.
Update integration tests to verify that existing feature flags are present in the response.
Update the feature flag introduction policy, making it mandatory to include feature flag verification in integration and acceptance tests. https://osdu.projects.opengroup.org/pmc/work-products/pmc-portal/pmc-policies/main/projects/feature-flag.html

Enhance Info Endpoints to Display Feature Flag Status

ADR/Issue Template