<!-- Should the feature flag be turned off? Any MRs that need to be rolled back? Communication that needs to happen? What are some things you can think of that could go wrong - data loss or broken pages? -->
### What can we monitor to detect problems with this?
<!-- Which dashboards from https://dashboards.gitlab.net are most relevant? -->
- If the feature flag causes QA end-to-end tests to fail:
- [ ] Disable the feature flag on staging to avoid blocking [deployments](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/deployments-and-releases/deployments/).
The best environment to validate the feature in is [staging-canary](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure/environments/#staging-canary)
as this is the first environment deployed to. Note you will need to make sure you are configured to use canary as outlined [here](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure/environments/canary-stage/)
when accessing the staging environment in order to make sure you are testing appropriately.
For assistance with QA end-to-end test failures, please reach out via the `#quality` Slack channel. Note that QA test failures on staging-ref [don't block deployments](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/infrastructure/environments/staging-ref/#how-to-use-staging-ref).
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 (`#g_TEAM_NAME`).
- [ ] 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 has been updated ([More info](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/documentation/feature_flags.html#features-that-became-enabled-by-default)).
- [ ] Ensure that any breaking changes have been announced following the [release post process](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/blog/release-posts/#deprecations-removals-and-breaking-changes) to ensure GitLab customers are aware.
- [ ] Notify `#support_gitlab-com` and your team channel ([more guidance when this is necessary in the dev docs](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#communicate-the-change)).
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 (`#g_TEAM_NAME`).
- If the feature flag in code has [an actor](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-actors), perform **actor-based** rollout.
- [ ]`/chatops run feature set <feature-flag-name> <rollout-percentage> --actors`
- If the feature flag in code does **NOT** have [an actor](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-actors), perform time-based rollout (**random** rollout).
- [ ] Wait for [at least one day for the verification term](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release).
### (Optional) Release the feature with the feature flag
If you're still unsure whether the feature is [deemed stable](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release)
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.
- [ ] Set the `default_enabled` attribute in [the feature flag definition](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#feature-flag-definition-and-validation) to `true`.
- [ ] Review [what warrants a changelog entry](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/changelog.html#what-warrants-a-changelog-entry) and decide if [a changelog entry](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/#changelog) 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](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/releases/#self-managed-releases-1),
- [ ] 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.
- [ ] (Optional) You can [create a separate issue](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issuable_template=Feature%20Flag%20Cleanup) for scheduling the steps below to [Release the feature](#release-the-feature).
**WARNING:** This approach has the downside that it makes it difficult for us to
[clean up](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#cleaning-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.
### Release the feature
After the feature has been [deemed stable](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product-development-flow/feature-flag-lifecycle/#including-a-feature-behind-feature-flag-in-the-final-release),
the [clean up](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/feature_flags/controls.html#cleaning-up)
should be done as soon as possible to permanently enable the feature and reduce complexity in the
You can either [create a follow-up issue for Feature Flag Cleanup](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/new?issuable_template=Feature%20Flag%20Cleanup) or use the checklist below in this same issue.
- [ ] Ensure that the cleanup MR has been included in the release package.
If the merge request was deployed before [the monthly release was tagged](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/releases/#self-managed-releases-1),
