Feature flags control whether a product capability is available under a release or operational policy. Entitlements describe which capabilities a customer has access to through their plan, purchase or explicit agreement. Keeping these decisions separate lets you change a release without accidentally changing what customers have purchased.
A user permission and a usage quota add two more decisions. The person may need authority to use the capability, and the workspace may need remaining capacity. One boolean named premium rarely explains all four conditions clearly enough.
Start with the questions each control answers
Consider a hypothetical recruiting operations product introducing a candidate comparison report. The company wants to release the new report gradually, sell it on a paid plan, restrict generation to hiring managers and limit monthly generation.
These requirements map to different controls:
| Control | Question | Example | |