Togle is a tool that lets developers re-configure the behavior of specific service instances. This facility is useful for testing and debugging, but it should never be used in production.

Toggle Configuration

Static configuration of toggles is often preferable to dynamic re-configuration but it can become cumbersome when managing a large set of toggles on a variety of servers. Many organizations move their toggle configuration into some type of centralized store, often an application database.

Feature Toggles are seen as inventory which has a carrying cost and savvy teams seek to keep this cost low. As a result, many teams put “expiration dates” on their toggles so that they are automatically removed once their lifecycle expires.

Experiment Toggles are an important part of multivariate or A/B testing. They allow us to perform a statistical experiment on a subset of users and compare the effect of different codepaths to find the best one.

Release Toggles are transitionary by nature and should generally not stick around much longer than a week or two. This is particularly true for product-centric toggles.

Toggle Labels

Use clear and direct labels for toggle controls to make them easy to understand and to prevent confusion or ambiguity. Ensure the labels describe what the control does and what state it is in right now.

Color is an important visual signifier for toggle switches and it is crucial to maintain a high-contrast color for the On position, and a low-contrast color for the Off position. This allows you to use color as a cue for what is happening, without having to ask the user to look for a visual indication.