Remote config

Also called: remote configuration, remote config server, dynamic config

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Remote config keeps values your application reads (timeouts, feature limits, thresholds, copy, endpoints) in server-side configuration an SDK fetches at runtime, so changing one is a dashboard edit rather than a deploy. A feature flag is a specialized kind of remote config whose value drives a branch in code, while remote config is the broader category of any remotely controlled value.

Remote config vs feature flags

They answer different questions with the same machinery. A feature flag asks "should this code path run?" Usually a boolean, often targeted per user, frequently short-lived. Remote config asks "what value should this setting hold?" Any type, often global, usually long-lived. The line blurs because a Featureflip flag can return a number, string, or JSON variation, so a JSON flag holding a config payload is remote config in all but name. Both are values delivered from a server and resolved by evaluation against the current context.

How remote config is delivered

The SDK holds the configuration in memory and reads it locally, so a lookup is sub-millisecond with no per-read network hop. When you change a value in the dashboard it is pushed to every connected SDK over a streaming connection, and the next read uses it, fleet-wide, within seconds, no redeploy. Because the same targeting applies, one key can resolve to different values per segment or environment. The feature flags concept guide describes the evaluation model these values share.

Want the full picture? Read the concept guide: What are feature flags? →

Related terms

Feature flag

A feature flag is a conditional in your code whose value is controlled from a remote dashboard, letting you turn functionality on or off without deploying new code.

Feature toggle

Feature toggle is another name for a feature flag, a runtime switch that turns functionality on or off without a code deploy. The terms are interchangeable.

Feature management

Feature management is the practice, and the category of tools, for running feature flags as a system: defining, targeting, rolling out, and retiring them from one place without redeploying.

Browse the full feature flag glossary →

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