Feature flags

The feature flags lens records the Laravel Pennant feature checks a request, job, command or MCP call made: which feature, for which scope, the value it got, and whether that value came from storage or was resolved just now. Updates and deletions of stored values are recorded too. Use it to see why a request took one branch rather than another.

Rows

Section features: one row per event Pennant reports

Field	Meaning	Unit	Missing when
feature	The feature's name.	-	never
scope	Who the feature was checked for. A model shows as Class#id, such as App\Models\User#42.	-	the feature was checked without a scope (global)
value	The value the feature had, or the value it was set to.	-	unknown and deleted rows
source	Where the value came from, see below.	-	never
time	When it happened, counted from the start of the capture.	ms	never
origin	The line in your code that checked or changed the feature.	-	no application code was on the way

source is one of:

Source	Meaning
stored	The value was read from Pennant's storage.
resolved	The value was worked out just now and stored.
unknown	The feature is not defined. Pennant treats it as false.
updated	The stored value was changed.
deleted	The stored value was removed.

Totals, warnings and errors

The summary gets these totals when the capture has at least one row:

Total	Label	Value
features_checked	checked	The number of different features in the rows.
features_resolved	resolved	The number of rows with source resolved.

Warning, once per feature:

• Feature {name} is not defined; it resolved to false. - a row has source unknown. Usually a typo in the feature name, or a feature whose definition is not loaded.

This lens reports no errors. See Warnings and errors for how warnings are shown.

In the dashboard

The Features tab lists the rows in the order they happened, or grouped by feature with the grouping chips. A group shows how many rows it has and folds out to them.

The value is shown as true in green or false in grey. A source of unknown is shown in yellow. The columns are the fields that have a value in some row. Click a row to fold it out to every field and the line in your code that made the check.

For agents

See every flag the latest capture checked and the value it got:

{
  "tool": "monocle-rows",
  "arguments": {
    "section": "features",
    "fields": ["feature", "scope", "value", "source", "origin"]
  }
}

Find checks of features that are not defined:

{
  "tool": "monocle-rows",
  "arguments": {
    "section": "features",
    "where": [{"field": "source", "op": "=", "value": "unknown"}]
  }
}

Follow one flag through a capture: every check, for which scope, and whether it was read or worked out:

{
  "tool": "monocle-rows",
  "arguments": {
    "section": "features",
    "where": [{"field": "feature", "op": "=", "value": "new-checkout"}],
    "fields": ["scope", "value", "source", "origin"]
  }
}

To find captures that checked flags at all, use monocle-list with "has": ["features"]. See For AI agents for every argument.

Configuration

Turn the lens on or off under lenses in config/monocle.php, keyed by PennantLens::class: true runs it, false turns it off. See Lenses. The lens has no options of its own.

Other settings that affect this lens:

• origin - whether rows get an origin, and how many lines of the call chain it has.
• except - checks made in a request or command that is not recorded are not recorded either.
• dashboard.tabs - where the Features tab sits among the tabs.
• Masking does not apply to this lens.

use ExeQue\Monocle\Lenses\Packages\Laravel\PennantLens;

'lenses' => [
    // ...
    PennantLens::class => true,
],

Requirements and limits

• Needs laravel/pennant. Without it the lens does nothing.
• Records only what Pennant reports. A check Pennant answers without reporting it is not listed.
• How long a check took is not measured.
• The closure or class that resolves a feature is not recorded, only the value it returned.