Enable Selective Feature Deployment from DEV to PROD

[JackHaeg]

Overview

Currently, our PROD environment is rebuilt entirely from DEV, which often leads to deploying incomplete or unstable features. This issue aims to implement a mechanism for deploying specific, production-ready features or branches from DEV to PROD without rebuilding the entire environment.

Action Items

• Research deployment strategies that enable selective promotion of features (e.g., feature flagging, cherry picking, or branch-based deployments).
• Document findings in this Google Doc and discuss with team.

Resources/Instructions

• GitHub Actions: Deployments Documentation
• Feature Flags Best Practices
• Trunk-Based Development Overview
• Git Cherry-Pick Documentation
• Per Trillium - consider PostHog

Potential future steps after research

- [ ] Propose and document an approach that allows the team to: - [ ] Identify production-ready features in DEV. - [ ] Deploy only those features to PROD. - [ ] Maintain clear version control and rollback options. - [ ] Evaluate tooling or CI/CD pipeline updates needed (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or other deployment tools). - [ ] Create a proof of concept for selective deployment on a non-critical feature. - [ ] Document the deployment process for team adoption and training.

[geolunalg]

Created Pros and Cons list for each of the merging strategies.
Created high level Git flow diagrams for each of the merging strategies.

Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15j1-lZWHtJj2bDXRoiQcLwI9wnRtga00Vx8jISKrDBc/edit?tab=t.0

[trillium]

Are we able to get access to AWS's AppConfig? @kkchu791 is interested in using that as our feature flagging service.