[PerfectSlayer]

What Does This Do

Switches the agent to the standalone dd-openfeature SDK:

• Registers the agent FeatureFlagsBackend on the gateway Backend added by Add the agent bridge for the dd-openfeature SDK #12975. It provides the agent settings, forwards the raw Remote Configuration documents, posts events through the agent event platform proxy, counts health metrics and enriches spans. The SDK keeps parsing, evaluating and batching.
• Removes the previous gateway API (listeners, cached configuration, flag evaluation writer). FeatureFlaggingSystem builds, starts and registers the backend.
• Removes feature-flagging-api and the agent-coupled writers, parser and agentless code, now owned by the SDK, with their agentless agent settings.
• Publishes :dd-openfeature as com.datadoghq:dd-openfeature. System tests build the matching jar; the smoke application uses com.datadog.openfeature.Provider.
• Keeps datadog.trace.api.openfeature.Provider as a deprecated alias of com.datadog.openfeature.Provider, with its legacy opt-out setter signature. Applications, and the system tests weblogs, still register the provider under that name.
• Keeps datadog.trace.api.openfeature.ExposureHook, documented on master, as a deprecated wrapper of com.datadog.openfeature.ExposureHook.

Motivation

The SDK must not share dd-trace-java internals, and SDK (customer build time) and agent (SSI runtime) versions must be able to differ (APMLP-1512).

Merge #12976 right after this PR: in between, released SDKs fail with this agent. #12978 restores the send-once delivery, the identity headers and the shutdown flush of the removed writers.

Additional Notes

Most of the diff (~23k lines) deletes agent-side code and tests now in the SDK. Review the new and rewritten classes below.

New files

File	Notes
lib FeatureFlagsBackend (+ test)	Agent Backend: settings from Config (agent defaults for API key, site, env, service, version; others from configProvider()), lazy RemoteConfigServiceImpl, event proxy delegation, health metrics through CoreMetricCollector, span enrichment through SpanEnrichmentWriter
lib EventProxy (+ test)	One agent EVP proxy client per route; connection refusal, 404 and 405 mean unavailable
dd-openfeature datadog/trace/api/openfeature/Provider (+ test)	Deprecated alias of the provider and its options
dd-openfeature datadog/trace/api/openfeature/ExposureHook (+ test)	Deprecated wrapper of the exposure hook and its Evaluation

Significant changes

File	Changes
bootstrap FeatureFlaggingGateway	Only the Backend registration is left
lib RemoteConfigServiceImpl	Forwards raw FFE_FLAGS documents (null on removal) to subscribers, replays the current one to late subscribers
lib SpanEnrichmentWriter	Exposes serialId(...) / runtimeDefault(...) called by the backend instead of listening to the gateway
agent FeatureFlaggingSystem	Builds, starts (rolls back on failure) and registers the backend
Config, ConfigDefaults, ConfigTest	Agentless base URL, poll interval and request timeout removed; the SDK reads them, still resolvable from the agent configuration through Backend.setting()
dd-openfeature/build.gradle.kts	Publishing, Automatic-Module-Name, Java 11 javadoc; the validate_build jar comparison (compareToReferenceJar) now covers the SDK jar too; japicmpPublicApi checks the public API (outside internal) stays compatible with the previous release
Tests	Rewritten for raw document forwarding, enrichment entry points, backend registration and rollback; master's shutdown probe test, relying on the removed gateway API, is dropped (shutdown is covered again in #12978)

Stack

The full change is in #12709. It was split into this stack to ease the review.

1. Resolve Feature Flags enablement from instrumenter config #12845 (merged)
2. Add dd-openfeature SDK flag configuration and evaluation core #12840 (merged)
3. Add dd-openfeature SDK settings and configuration delivery #12841 (merged)
4. Add dd-openfeature SDK exposure and flag evaluation pipelines #12842 (merged)
5. Add dd-openfeature SDK OpenFeature provider #12843 (merged)
6. Port master Feature Flags changes to the dd-openfeature SDK #12957 (merged)
7. Add the agent bridge for the dd-openfeature SDK #12975 (merged)
8. Connect the dd-openfeature SDK to the agent #12844 👈 this PR
9. Keep released dd-openfeature SDKs working with the agent #12976
10. Resolve the Feature Flags settings like the SDK #12977
11. Restore the agent Feature Flags behaviors through the bridge #12978
12. Add agentless and standalone OpenFeature smoke tests #12846

Jira ticket: APMLP-1512

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[dd-octo-sts]

🟢 Java Benchmark SLOs — All performance SLOs passed

Suite	Status
Startup	🟢 pass

SLO thresholds are defined here based on automatically generated metrics. A warning is raised when results are within 5% of the threshold.

PR vs. master results

Scenario	Candidate	master	Δ (95% CI of mean)
startup:insecure-bank:iast:Agent	13.92 s	13.98 s	[-1.2%; +0.4%] (no difference)
startup:insecure-bank:tracing:Agent	12.98 s	12.96 s	[-0.7%; +0.9%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:appsec:Agent	16.45 s	16.98 s	[-7.3%; +1.1%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:iast:Agent	16.91 s	17.00 s	[-1.2%; +0.1%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:profiling:Agent	16.69 s	16.67 s	[-0.9%; +1.1%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:sca:Agent	17.02 s	16.94 s	[-0.5%; +1.4%] (no difference)
startup:petclinic:tracing:Agent	15.97 s	16.08 s	[-1.5%; +0.2%] (no difference)

Commit: 3138adb7 · CI Pipeline · Benchmarking Platform UI

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Load and DaCapo benchmarks can be triggered manually in the GitLab pipeline. Results will appear in the Benchmarking Platform UI after completion.

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Codex Review Summary

This comment shows the latest Codex review activity on this pull request.

Review	Status	Commit	Review trigger
📝 Code Review	✅ Completed 2026-10-21T15:49:31.463048Z	078b457	Draft marked ready
🔒 Security Review	🔄 Running since 2026-10-21T15:39:51.924418Z	078b457	Draft marked ready

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[datadog-official]

A temporary Agent discovery failure can permanently disable feature-flag event delivery, even after the Agent recovers. Restoring recovery requires keeping a retryable transport available through SDK initialization.

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[chatgpt-codex-connector]

💡 Codex Review

Here are some automated review suggestions for this pull request.

Reviewed commit: 078b457fb6

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• Comment "@codex review".

If Codex has suggestions, it will comment; otherwise it will react with 👍.

Codex can also answer questions or update the PR. Try commenting "@codex address that feedback".

[sarahchen6]

Let's do it!

[datadog-official]

Release the poller reference when closing the service

After start(), close() no longer balances configurationPoller.start(). DefaultConfigurationPoller reference-counts start/stop, so removing listeners leaves its scheduled task active after the last consumer closes; restarting the service leaks another reference. Restore the matching stop() call and update the close test, which currently asserts that stop() is never called. Reference counting already protects other products sharing the poller.

React: 👍 useful · 👎 wrong · 😕 unclear · 👀 right, but not acting on it

What each reaction means

• 👍 Useful: correct, and you're fixing it or will.
• 👎 Wrong: the finding is incorrect, for example the bug can't happen or the code was misread.
• 😕 Unclear: you can't tell what it means or why it matters.
• 👀 Right, not acting: correct, but intended, out of scope for this PR, a known risk, or too minor.

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[datadog-official]

An agent configuration-file disable can be bypassed by the SDK's agentless fallback. Closing the Remote Configuration service also leaves its poller reference active.

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_{🤖 Bits Code Review · Commit 3138adb}

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Findings that could not be posted inline

dd-java-agent/instrumentation/datadog/openfeature/dd-openfeature-1.69/src/main/java/datadog/trace/instrumentation/openfeature/DDOpenFeatureInstrumentation.java:29

Honor feature-flag disables from agent configuration

When feature flags are disabled through the agent configuration file, this gate prevents bridge installation and FeatureFlaggingSystem also leaves the backend unregistered. The SDK receives AgentBridge.NONE, misses the disable setting, and defaults to agentless mode. With DD_API_KEY and DD_ENV configured, registering the provider starts CDN polling and direct event delivery despite the explicit disable. Preserve access to the agent's disable setting; both instrumentation gating and backend registration need to accommodate this.

React: 👍 useful · 👎 wrong · 😕 unclear · 👀 right, but not acting on it

What each reaction means

• 👍 Useful: correct, and you're fixing it or will.
• 👎 Wrong: the finding is incorrect, for example the bug can't happen or the code was misread.
• 😕 Unclear: you can't tell what it means or why it matters.
• 👀 Right, not acting: correct, but intended, out of scope for this PR, a known risk, or too minor.

_{🤖 Bits Code Review · Open Bits AI session}