Context
Goal / Problem
Access to the third-party feature flag management system (LaunchDarkly) was restricted by licensing costs, creating an engineering bottleneck. Team members often needed to check the status of a specific feature flag in development, staging, or production environments but lacked direct license access. The primary goal was to build an internal, read-only flag viewer that replicated key information, thereby reducing the number of required paid licenses.
Role
Project Lead for the internal tool development, overseeing two junior engineers. My specific contributions included:
- Scaffolding the simple React SPA using Vite.
- Collaborating with DevOps to define and set up the CI/CD pipeline for the static site.
- Defining the deliverables and assigning tasks to the junior engineers based on their strengths.
- Supervising the development of flag fetching, display logic, and styling.
Tech Stack
- Frontend: React.js, Vite
- Backend: LaunchDarkly API
- Database: N/A
- Infra / DevOps: AWS S3 (static hosting), GitHub Actions (CI/CD)
Architecture Overview
The tool is a simple, high-performance React Single-Page Application (SPA) scaffolded with Vite. The frontend directly consumes the LaunchDarkly API using a read-only API key to fetch flag data. The application is a static site deployed and hosted via AWS S3 for low-cost, high-availability serving. Deployment is managed automatically using a GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline, which builds the React app and publishes the resulting static assets to the S3 bucket. This architecture ensured minimal maintenance overhead and high reliability.
Implementation Highlights
- Scaffolded a modern, performant React SPA using Vite, establishing a scalable foundation for future internal tooling.
- Integrated with the LaunchDarkly API using a secure, read-only key to fetch real-time flag data across development, staging, and production environments.
- Established a standardized CI/CD pipeline via GitHub Actions for publishing internal static applications to AWS S3.
- Mentored and managed two junior engineers, delegating feature work (display logic, styling) to maximize team output.
Challenges & Decisions
- Decision: Built a custom internal tool instead of purchasing more licenses.
- Rationale: The business goal was purely to provide read-only visibility into flag status for internal teams, which did not justify the cost of full LaunchDarkly seats. The tool provided 90% of the required functionality for 0% of the incremental license cost, directly fulfilling the cost-saving objective.
Outcome / Impact
- Achieved an annual licensing fee savings of $8,000 by eliminating the need for 30+ additional LaunchDarkly user seats.
- Streamlined engineering workflows by providing instant, self-service access to feature flag statuses, eliminating communication bottlenecks.
- Established a reusable CI/CD pipeline and static site infrastructure (React + Vite + AWS S3 + GitHub Actions) for future internal tooling.
Lessons / Next Steps
- Gained experience in leading and delegating work to junior team members effectively, focusing on scaffolding and infrastructure while supervising feature delivery.
- Understood the significant financial impact of targeted internal tooling development as a replacement for costly external software licenses.