flags

A guide for adding or changing experimental feature flags in Next.js, a React framework for web applications. It covers declaring a flag, validating its configuration, and making it available during builds or at runtime.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when changing Next.js internals such as shared configuration, validation, environment handling, the server, exports, or compiled runtime modules.
Why use it?
It prevents a flag from being defined in one part of Next.js but missing from another, which can cause incorrect behavior or failed builds.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/vercel/next.js/flags
Any agent
npx skills add vercel/next.js --skill flags
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vercel/next.js

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 77 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 728 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00077 $0.00728
Opus 5 $0.00039 $0.00364
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00146
Haiku 4.5 $0.00008 $0.00073

Measured yesterday against content hash 51c0d540171e, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

flags scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.agents/skills/flags/SKILL.md · 46 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 46 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Feature Flags

Use this skill when adding or changing framework feature flags in Next.js internals.

Required Wiring

All flags need: config-shared.ts (type) → config-schema.ts (zod). If the flag is consumed in user-bundled code (client components, edge routes, app-page.ts template), also add it to define-env.ts for build-time injection. Runtime-only flags consumed exclusively in pre-compiled bundles can skip define-env.ts.

Where the Flag Is Consumed

Client/bundled code only (e.g. __NEXT_PPR in client components): define-env.ts is sufficient. Webpack/Turbopack replaces process.env.X at the user's build time.

Pre-compiled runtime bundles (e.g. code in app-render.tsx): The flag must also be set as a real process.env var at runtime, because app-render.tsx runs from pre-compiled bundles where define-env.ts doesn't reach. Two approaches:

  • Runtime env var: Set in next-server.ts + export/worker.ts. Both code paths stay in one bundle. Simple but increases bundle size.
  • Separate bundle variant: Add DefinePlugin entry in next-runtime.webpack-config.js (scoped to bundleType === 'app'), new taskfile tasks, update module.compiled.js selector, and still set env var in next-server.ts + export/worker.ts for bundle selection. Eliminates dead code but adds build complexity.

For runtime flags, also add the field to the NextConfigRuntime Pick type in config-shared.ts.

Runtime-Bundle Model

  • Runtime bundles are built by next-runtime.webpack-config.js (rspack) via taskfile.js bundle tasks.
  • Bundle selection occurs at runtime in src/server/route-modules/app-page/module.compiled.js based on process.env vars.
  • Variants: {turbo/webpack} × {experimental/stable/nodestreams/experimental-nodestreams} × {dev/prod} = up to 16 bundles per route type.
  • define-env.ts affects user bundling, not pre-compiled runtime internals.
  • process.env.X checks in app-render.tsx are either replaced by DefinePlugin at runtime-bundle-build time, or read as actual env vars at server startup. They are NOT affected by the user's defines from define-env.ts.
  • Gotcha: DefinePlugin entries in next-runtime.webpack-config.js must be scoped to the correct bundleType (e.g. app only, not server) to avoid replacing assignment targets in next-server.ts.

Read the full file on GitHub · 46 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 46 lines · 77 tokens per session scan A 51c0d540171e

Subscribe to this mod's changes

flags is a skill published in the GitHub repository vercel/next.js (142,020 stars, last pushed yesterday), licensed MIT. It adds 77 tokens to every session and 728 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.