Platform Features

Overview#

Not every organisation needs every capability on day one. The Platform Features module gives administrators precise control over which features are active, at which level of the hierarchy, and for which user segments. A feature disabled at the organisation level is invisible to every user in that organisation. A feature in beta can be exposed to a nominated pilot group while remaining hidden from everyone else.

This control is particularly useful for organisations managing tiered product offerings, compliance-driven feature restrictions, or gradual capability rollouts across large user bases.

Key Features#

Hierarchical Feature Control: Features are managed through a cascading hierarchy where platform-level settings flow down through partners, tenants, and users. Disabling a feature at any level removes it from all levels below, while enabling features at lower levels is constrained by what the parent level permits.
Feature Categories: Capabilities are organised into logical groups including core platform features, advanced analytics, administrative tools, and specialised modules. Each feature can be independently enabled or disabled with clear visibility into current status and adoption.
Beta and Early Access Programs: Run controlled beta programmes with opt-in access, gradual percentage-based rollouts, and geographic targeting. Monitor adoption rates, collect feedback, and track stability metrics before promoting to general availability.
Feature Configuration: Set usage limits, performance tiers, and access parameters on a per-feature basis. Tailor feature behaviour to match licensing tiers and organisational requirements without code changes.
Feature Analytics: Track feature enablement rates, active usage, engagement trends, and adoption patterns across your deployment. Identify underutilised features and make informed decisions about feature investment and deprecation.
License-Based Entitlements: Tie feature availability to licence tiers (Free, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, Custom) with automatic enforcement. Manage licence allocation, track active usage, and monitor licence expiration.
Dependency Management: View and manage feature dependencies to understand which features require others to function. Impact analysis shows downstream effects before any feature is disabled.
Controlled Deprecation: Retire features through a structured process with advance communication, migration support, graceful transition periods, and automated notifications to affected users and administrators.

Use Cases#

Tiered product offerings with different feature sets per subscription level, enforced automatically through the feature hierarchy without custom configuration per customer.
Safe feature launches using gradual rollouts that start with internal testing, expand to pilot users, and progress to general availability with monitoring at each stage.
Partner customisation allowing each partner to select which features are available to their customer base, supporting diverse market requirements from a single platform.
Compliance-driven access where features involving sensitive data processing or regulated activities are restricted to organisations that have met specific qualification criteria.
Cost management by disabling unused features to optimise resource consumption and reduce complexity in the user experience.

Open Standards#

OAuth 2.0 (RFC 6749) and Bearer Token Usage (RFC 6750): Feature-flag and admin integration endpoints enforce OAuth 2.0 scoped access tokens; every call is gated on named scopes (e.g. argus:intelligence:read, platform:deployments:execute) carried as Bearer tokens.
JSON Web Token (RFC 7519): Platform access control and service-to-service deployment authorisation rely on RS256-signed JWTs; claims such as iss, aud, exp, scope, and custom platform claims are validated on every privileged admin request.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC, NIST SP 800-207 concept): The hierarchical feature-control model implements a canonical RBAC enforcement layer where platform, partner, tenant, and user roles govern which features are readable or mutable at each level.
OAuth 2.0 and JWT Bearer Token: Token-based authentication protects typed, auditable read and write workflows across the platform.
ISO 8601 / RFC 3339 date-time format: Timestamps for feature rollouts, licence expiry, audit entries, and beta-programme schedules are stored and exchanged as UTC ISO 8601 strings, with timezone-aware parsing throughout.
RFC 4122 UUID: Every tenant, feature, entitlement, and provisioned resource is identified by a Version 4 UUID, ensuring globally unique, collision-resistant identifiers across the multi-tenant hierarchy.
OpenAPI 3.x (OAS3): The REST admin dashboard routes are served through FastAPI, which auto-generates an OpenAPI 3.x schema; this makes admin endpoints discoverable and machine-testable without additional tooling.

Getting Started#

Review Feature Catalog: Browse the complete list of available features organised by category.
Define Feature Strategy: Determine which features should be available at each level of your hierarchy.
Configure Entitlements: Map features to licence tiers and set appropriate usage limits.
Enable Monitoring: Activate feature analytics to track adoption and usage patterns.
Plan Rollouts: Use beta programmes and gradual rollouts for new feature introductions.

Last Reviewed: 2026-02-05 Last Updated: 2026-04-14