What Is a Kill Switch?
A kill switch is a special-purpose feature toggle designed to turn off a feature, integration, or code path immediately in production, typically as an emergency control. When something misbehaves, an operator flips the switch and the risky behavior stops at runtime, no redeploy required. It is a safety mechanism, not a release-management tool.
Why it matters
During an incident, the fastest possible mitigation is often to disable the offending feature, and a deploy is too slow. A kill switch makes that an instant configuration change, dramatically lowering mean time to recovery. Critical features and third-party integrations are common candidates for one.
Related concepts
- An emergency-oriented feature toggle
- Cuts mean time to recovery during incidents
- Common for risky features and third-party integrations
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