How Reflag Enables Coding Agents to Feature Flag Code

As coding agents become increasingly prevalent in software development, engineering teams face a new challenge: maintaining code quality and deployment safety in the face of rising volumes of agent-created code. Feature flags have long been a solution to this, now agents need to use them, too.

Coding Agent Bottlenecks

Whether you’re doing agent-assisted coding or assigning tasks to coding agents entirely, there are three critical bottlenecks:

1. Code review overload: Engineers spend significantly more time reviewing agent-generated PRs

2. Merge conflict proliferation: Multiple simultaneous changes create painful integration conflicts  

3. Elevated risk surface: Agent-authored code carries higher likelihood of bugs or unintended consequences.

Feature flags directly mitigate the latter two challenges while enabling trunk-based development practices that keep the main branch always deployable. This has worked well for years, with engineers flagging code whenever they’re working on a sizable change, or risky deployment. Now you need to get your agents to do the same.

Agent-Ready Feature Flags

Reflag’s feature flags integrate seamlessly into the coding agent workflow in three main ways:

1. Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration

MCP provides a standardized way for AI models to connect with external tools and data sources. Reflag hosts a remote MCP server that enables coding agents to understand your feature flags, their states, and relationships within your codebase.

Setup with npx reflag mcp, this single command detects your editor (Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop, etc.) and configures the MCP connection. The remote-hosted approach eliminates the need to manage local server processes with your agent connecting to https://app.reflag.com/api/mcp.

Once set up, your coding agent gains contextual awareness of your feature flag infrastructure. When assigned an issue, the agent can query existing flags, create new flags, and wrap new code appropriately.

2. Command-Line Interface (CLI)

The Reflag CLI provides programmatic access to feature flag management, enabling both human developers and coding agents to interact with flags directly from the terminal.

Install with npx @reflag/cli new and use npx reflag new to initialize Reflag in your project and create new flags with an appropriate key. It also generates TypeScript type definitions.

The CLI's type generation is particularly powerful for coding agents. By generating compile-time types, Reflag transforms potential runtime errors from invalid flag keys into build errors that agents can catch and correct before deployment.

3. Agent Rules and Instructions

Reflag provides pre-built rule sets that teach coding agents best practices for feature flag usage. These rules can be injected into agent contexts via editor-specific formats.

For Cursor

Create .cursor/rules/reflag.mdc:

We use Reflag (https://reflag.com) for feature flagging and feature management.
Reflag's documentation is located at https://docs.reflag.com
You can create feature flags using the CLI (@reflag/cli).
If installed, you can use the Reflag MCP to create flags.
Alternatively, try this command to use the Reflag CLI: npx reflag new

For GitHub Copilot

The CLI can add rules to .github/copilot-instructions.md:

npx reflag rules --format copilot

These rules provide coding agents with contextual instructions so they automatically apply feature flag patterns without requiring developers to specify flagging requirements in every issue description.

Custom Cursor slash commands

Create .cursor/commands/flag.md:

Feature flag the changes‍
1. Create a feature flag with Reflag with an appropriate name
2. Update the code to ensure changes are flagged‍
If installed, use the CLI to create a feature flag using: npx reflag new
If the Reflag MCP is installed, create a flag through the Reflag MCP

This creates a /flag command in Cursor that agents can invoke to automatically wrap code in feature flags.

Linear for Agents integration for End-to-end workflows

Reflag also has an agent for Linear, enabling true agent-driven feature development from issue to deployment. The @reflag agent can be mentioned directly in Linear issues and projects to manage feature flags without context switching.

Creating features from issues: @reflag create feature flag for this issue

The Reflag agent generates a feature flag with an appropriate key based on the issue context and links it back to Linear.

Managing feature access: @reflag release to everyone and bump stage to GA

For Customer Requests: @reflag release to the customers that requested it

The agent interprets natural language instructions to modify flag targeting rules, update lifecycle stages, and manage access controls.

When you link a feature to a Linear issue or project, Reflag can automatically post access changes as comments in Linear, creating a transparent audit trail of feature rollouts visible to the entire team.

TypeScript-First Type Safety

Reflag's focus on TypeScript enables type safety that prevents an entire class of runtime errors common in feature flag implementations. This is particularly valuable in agent-driven workflows where typos and inconsistencies can slip through code review. The type system acts as a safety net, catching errors at build time rather than when customers encounter them in production.

Solving Merge Conflicts with Trunk-Based Development

Feature flags are an enabler for trunk-based development, which is a way to tackle the issue of merge conflicts by keeping changes small and frequently integrated into the main branch.

Without feature flags, incomplete features require long-lived branches that diverge from main, creating painful merge conflicts when multiple developers work simultaneously.

With feature flags, coding agents can work on small, incremental changes that are merged into main behind a feature flag. The code is deployed but remains dormant until the flag is enabled.

This approach enables continuous integration, parallel development with multiple agents working on different features simultaneously, and maintains a unified codebase, with all code paths being tested together, eliminating environment-specific bugs.

De-Risking Agent-Created Code

The primary concern with agent-authored code is elevated risk. Agents can generate syntactically correct code that nonetheless contains subtle bugs or unintended side effects.

Feature flags provide a safety net and Reflag makes it easy to integrate it into agentic workflows.

Example Workflow: Issue to Production with Coding Agents

Here's a complete workflow demonstrating how Reflag enables coding agents to safely ship features:

1. Issue creation in Linear:

A product manager creates an issue:

Title: Add CSV export to analytics dashboard
Description: Users need to export analytics data as CSV files
Assign to: @cursor

The issue description includes instructions for the Cursor agent to use Reflag (via a project-level rule or explicit instruction).

2. Agent creates flag and implements feature:

The Cursor agent:

• Connects to Reflag via MCP to create a feature flag: csv-export‍
• Generates TypeScript types using the CLI: npx reflag flags types‍
• Implements the export functionality wrapped in the flag:

function AnalyticsDashboard() {
  const { isEnabled } = useFlag('csv-export');
  
  return (
    <div>
      {/* existing dashboard */}
      {isEnabled && <ExportButton />}
    </div>
  );
}

• Creates a pull request with the flagged code

3. Code review and merge:

Engineers review the PR. Once approved, the code merges to main and deploys to production but remains invisible to customers because the flag is off.

4. Internal validation:

The PM enables the flag for internal users via Reflag's UI or Linear: @reflag enable csv-export for internal team

The team tests the feature in production with real data.

5. Progressive rollout:

After internal validation, the feature rolls out gradually: @reflag release csv-export to 10% of users

Metrics are monitored. If issues arise, you can toggle the flag off instantly.

‍6. Full release:

Once validated: @reflag release csv-export to everyone and set stage to GA

The feature is now available to all customers.

7. Cleanup:

Reflag's self-cleaning flags feature automatically detects when the flag is stable and creates a PR to remove the flag code, preventing technical debt accumulating.

Conclusion

At Reflag, we’re rethinking feature flags for the age of coding agents. By providing MCP integration, TypeScript-native type safety, Linear workflow embedding, and CLI automation, Reflag transforms feature flags from a deployment safety mechanism into native infrastructure for agent-driven development.

As coding agents become the norm, tooling that treats agents as first-class citizens will increasingly differentiate high-performing teams from those struggling with agent-generated chaos.

Feature flags aren’t just a deployment safety mechanism. In the era of coding agents, they're a fundamental primitive that makes high-velocity, autonomous code generation safe for production.