# Launchdarkly guarded rollout Human Guide

## What This Is For
You're using a skill that will guide you through configuring guarded rollouts in LaunchDarkly. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Launchdarkly guarded rollout agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for launchdarkly guarded rollout.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Launchdarkly guarded rollout guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- `start-guarded-rollout` -- start a progressive rollout with monitoring
- `get-flag` -- inspect the flag and its variations
- `list-metrics` -- find metrics to monitor during the rollout
- `stop-guarded-rollout` -- halt an active rollout immediately
- `toggle-flag` -- ensure the flag is turned on before starting
- `create-metric` -- create metrics if they don't exist
- **Start Small**: Begin with a low percentage (1-5%) to catch issues early
- **Monitor What Matters**: Choose metrics that reflect user experience
- **Set Realistic Thresholds**: Too tight = false alarms; too loose = missed regressions
- **Allow Time**: Each stage needs enough monitoring time for signal to emerge
- **Have a Rollback Plan**: Always configure at least notification on regression
- Use `get-flag` to inspect the flag — note the variation IDs for test and control

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Prerequisites, Core Concepts, What Are Guarded Rollouts?, Key Components, Rollout Weight Units, Monitoring Window, Core Principles, Workflow, Step 1: Prepare, Step 2: Design Stages.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- `create-metric` -- create metrics if they don't exist
- | Approval required | If the environment requires approvals, the tool will return an approval URL |
- Don't start a guarded rollout on a flag that's turned off
- Don't skip the monitoring window design — rushing through stages defeats the purpose
- Don't set regression thresholds to 0 — small fluctuations are normal
- Don't forget to configure at least one metric — a rollout without monitoring is just a regular rollout

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Launchdarkly guarded rollout human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the launchdarkly/agent-skills skill entry for `launchdarkly-guarded-rollout`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# LaunchDarkly Guarded Rollouts

You're using a skill that will guide you through configuring guarded rollouts in LaunchDarkly. Your job is to design rollout stages, select monitoring metrics, configure regression thresholds, and start the rollout.

## Prerequisites

This skill requires the remotely hosted LaunchDarkly MCP server to be configured in your environment.

**Required MCP tools:**
- `start-guarded-rollout` -- start a progressive rollout with monitoring
- `get-flag` -- inspect the flag and its variations
- `list-metrics` -- find metrics to monitor during the rollout

**Optional MCP tools:**
- `stop-guarded-rollout` -- halt an active rollout immediately
- `toggle-flag` -- ensure the flag is turned on before starting
- `create-metric` -- create metrics if they don't exist

## Core Concepts

### What Are Guarded Rollouts?

A guarded rollout progressively increases traffic to a new feature flag variation through a series of stages. At each stage, LaunchDarkly monitors selected metrics for regressions. If a regression is detected, the rollout can automatically pause and notify the team — or even roll back.

### Key Components

| Component | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **Test variation** | The new variation being rolled out |
| **Control variation** | The existing/baseline variation |
| **Stages** | Steps with increasing traffic percentage and monitoring windows |
| **Metrics** | What to monitor for regressions (error rate, latency, etc.) |
| **Regression threshold** | How much a metric can degrade before triggering action |
| **On regression** | Whether to notify, rollback, or both when a threshold is breached |

### Rollout Weight Units

Rollout weights use thousandths (basis points):
- `1000` = 1%
- `10000` = 10%
- `50000` = 50%
- `100000` = 100%

### Monitoring Window

The monitoring window is specified in milliseconds:
- `3600000` = 1 hour
- `86400000` = 24 hours
- `604800000` = 7 days

## Core Principles

1. **Start Small**: Begin with a low percentage (1-5%) to catch issues early
2. **Monitor What Matters**: Choose metrics that reflect user experience
3. **Set Realistic Thresholds**: Too tight = false alarms; too loose = missed regressions
4. **Allow Time**: Each stage needs enough monitoring time for signal to emerge
5. **Have a Rollback Plan**: Always configure at least notification on regression

## Workflow

### Step 1: Prepare

Before starting a guarded rollout:

1. Use `get-flag` to inspect the flag — note the variation IDs for test and control
2. Use `list-metrics` to find metrics suitable for monitoring
3. Ensure the flag is **on** in the target environment (use `toggle-flag` if needed)
4. Confirm there's no active guarded rollout on this flag already

### Step 2: Design Stages

Plan the rollout progression. A typical pattern:

| Stage | Traffic | Monitoring Window | Purpose |
|-------|---------|-------------------|---------|
| 1 | 1% | 1 hour | Smoke test — catch obvious crashes |
| 2 | 10% | 24 hours | Early signal on metrics |
| 3 | 50% | 24 hours | Confidence building |
| 4 | 100% | 24 hours | Full rollout with monitoring |