exd telemetry dead-flags

Flags whose every evaluation returned the catch-all (default) variant. Has traffic; no rule ever fires.

Synopsis

exd telemetry dead-flags
    [--namespace <slug>] [--environment <env>]
    [--since <duration> | --from <ts> --to <ts>]
    [--source <uri>]...
    [--format human|json]
    [--limit <n>]
    [--fail-on-error]

See common flags for shared options.

Description

Filters evaluation records to flags whose every record in the window resolved through fallthrough or default_variant reasons — never a rule_matched. The flag is being evaluated, but no audience is landing in any rule.

Dead-flags vs. coverage. coverage is "no traffic at all". dead-flags is "traffic, but never a rule match" — a strict subset of "no useful behavior". Together they cover every flag that probably doesn't earn its keep.

Use cases

• Identify post-rollout flags that can be retired. A flag that completed a rollout and is now always serving control is a candidate for retirement once the call sites are removed.

• Catch stale audiences. A flag whose segment used to match real users but no longer does (e.g., the user attribute changed shape, or the segment closure shrunk to zero) shows up here.

• Per-environment drift. Combine with --environment to find flags that work in staging but not prod:

  exd telemetry dead-flags --environment prod --since 7d

Subcommand-specific flags

None beyond the common-flag set.

Result fields (--format json)

result.dead is an array:

Field	Type	Notes
flag_key	string	Flag key.
namespace	string	Namespace slug.
total_evaluations	integer	All evaluations in the window.
fallthrough_count	integer	Evaluations that fell through to a variant.
default_count	integer	Evaluations that hit the catch-all _.variant.
lifecycle	enum	development, active, retired.

Diagnostics

• T003 dead flag (one per entry)

Example

$ exd telemetry dead-flags --since 7d
Dead flags (last 7d) — all evaluations returned the catch-all variant

flag                       evaluations    fallthrough     default     lifecycle
old-promo-banner                 4,231           4,231           0     active        ← T003
deprecated-feature-x            18,442               0      18,442     active        ← T003

T003 info: old-promo-banner is dead — every eval fell through to '_.variant'.
  Last rule match: 2025-12-22T18:11:03Z. Consider retiring the flag.

Exit codes

See telemetry exit codes.

See also

• coverage — flags with no traffic at all.
• rules — per-rule match counts (drills into "why is this flag dead?").
• T003.