Migrate from Optimizely Feature Flags

Overview

Optimizely Feature Experimentation (formerly Optimizely Feature Flags / Rollout) is a powerful platform with a more complex API centered around experiments, variations, and a decision service. ShipSilently focuses on developer experience — simpler initialization, in-memory evaluation, and a clean context-based API.

Before you begin

• You have an existing Optimizely Feature Experimentation project with flags/experiments in production
• You have a ShipSilently account (create one free)
• Your application uses the Optimizely Node.js or JavaScript SDK

Step 1: Set up your ShipSilently project

1. Sign in to ShipSilently and create a new project.
2. Copy your API key from Settings → API Keys.

Step 2: Map Optimizely concepts to ShipSilently

Optimizely	ShipSilently
Feature Flag	Flag
Feature Variable	Flag variant
Experiment	Flag with percentage rollout
Audience	Targeting rule
User ID	userId in context
User Attributes	Context object fields
Datafile	Managed automatically

Step 3: Recreate your flags

For each Optimizely feature flag:

1. Create a flag in ShipSilently with the same key
2. Recreate audience conditions as targeting rules (e.g., plan === 'enterprise', country === 'US')
3. For feature variables, use ShipSilently variant flags

Step 4: Replace the SDK

# Remove Optimizely SDK
npm uninstall @optimizely/optimizely-sdk

# Install ShipSilently
npm install @shipsilently/node

Step 5: Update initialization

Before (Optimizely):

import { createInstance } from '@optimizely/optimizely-sdk';

const optimizely = createInstance({
  sdkKey: process.env.OPTIMIZELY_SDK_KEY,
});

await optimizely.onReady();

After (ShipSilently):

import { initialize } from '@shipsilently/node';

export const flags = initialize(process.env.SHIPSILENTLY_KEY);

Step 6: Update flag evaluations

Before (Optimizely):

const isEnabled = optimizely.isFeatureEnabled(
  'new-checkout',
  user.id,
  { plan: user.plan, country: user.country }
);

After (ShipSilently):

const isEnabled = await flags.getFlag('new-checkout', {
  userId: user.id,
  plan: user.plan,
  country: user.country,
});

API comparison

Optimizely	ShipSilently
optimizely.isFeatureEnabled(key, userId, attrs)	flags.getFlag(key, context)
optimizely.getFeatureVariable(key, varKey, userId, attrs)	flags.getVariant(key, context)
optimizely.getEnabledFeatures(userId, attrs)	flags.getAllFlags(context)
Requires datafile fetch + onReady()	In-memory evaluation after initial sync

Step 7: Feature variables migration

Optimizely’s feature variables allow attaching configuration values to features. Use ShipSilently variant flags for the same capability.

Before (Optimizely):

const headerColor = optimizely.getFeatureVariable(
  'redesign',
  'header_color',
  user.id,
  { plan: user.plan }
); // '#00E5FF'

After (ShipSilently):

const headerColor = await flags.getVariant('redesign-header-color', {
  userId: user.id,
  plan: user.plan,
}); // '#00E5FF'

Step 8: Set your environment variable

# Remove
OPTIMIZELY_SDK_KEY=xxxx

# Add
SHIPSILENTLY_KEY=ss-live-xxxx

Step 9: Verify and cut over

1. Deploy to staging with SHIPSILENTLY_KEY
2. Verify all flags evaluate as expected in the ShipSilently Analytics view
3. Run any A/B experiment segments through the new SDK to confirm targeting parity
4. Deploy to production, remove the Optimizely SDK, and revoke your Optimizely credentials

What’s next

• Read the ShipSilently SDK docs
• Set up percentage rollouts and A/B targeting in the dashboard
• Use the REST API to automate flag management in your deployment pipeline