Set Up Approval Flow for Rules in Feature Flags

Overview

The approval flow for feature flag rules provides governance by ensuring that no rule changes go live in your production environments without proper checks and balances. It operates at the rule level, ensuring that any modification to feature flag rules, such as targeting conditions, rollout percentages, or environment-specific configurations, is reviewed and approved before being published.

Approvals are granted by users explicitly defined as approvers, ensuring accountability and controlled decision-making throughout the release process. By enforcing approvals at the rule level, teams can make iterative changes safely while maintaining visibility and accountability over what is released to production. 

This approach is valuable for organizations managing complex deployments across multiple environments, where even minor rule changes can significantly impact the end-user experience. 

For example, a developer might configure a new rollout rule for a feature flag. Instead of deploying it immediately, they send it for approval. A designated reviewer then checks the configuration to ensure it aligns with business goals before authorizing the live deployment.

This feature enables you to:

• Maintain strict control over account changes to prevent unauthorized deployments.
• Review changes in an unpublished state to catch potential configuration errors before they impact users.
• Ensure all production environment modifications undergo a verified check-and-balance process.

Prerequisites

• You must have an Admin role in VWO to enable account-level approval settings. For more information, see Roles in VWO. 
• Designated approvers must have Design-level access or higher.
• This feature must be enabled at the account level before it can be applied to individual campaigns or rules.

Define Approvers and Enable Approval Flow

Before using the approval flow, you must define your list of approvers and enable the required settings in your VWO account.

1. Go to Settings > Campaigns.
2. Under the Approvals and Unpublished Changes section, select Enable review and approvals on all your campaigns for this account.

3. Select up to four users from the dropdown menu to act as designated approvers. Any designated approver can review and take action on an approval request.
   

   Note: While VWO allows you to define multiple approvers to ensure someone is always available to review changes, a request does not need to pass through Approver 1, then Approver 2, and so on. It is available to all designated approvers simultaneously. A single approval from any authorized user is sufficient to move the rule to the Approved state. The first person to take action on the approval request determines the outcome of that specific request.
4. When you select Enable review and approvals on all your campaigns in this account, the following options are auto-enabled:

   • Bypass approval via Developer API
     Keep this option enabled if you use automated deployment scripts, for example, CI/CD, and want API-driven changes to go live without waiting for manual approval. If needed, you can deselect it later to ensure that API-driven changes also follow the approval workflow.

     Note: VWO will push modifications made via the developer API immediately without waiting for approvals. Enabling this option also revokes any existing approvals for previous changes.

   • Enable unpublished changes on all your campaigns for this account
     This option is auto-enabled because all edits must be saved in an unpublished state before they can be sent for review.

     Note: You cannot disable this option. It ensures that all campaign changes remain unpublished until an approver reviews and approves them, ensuring a consistent approval workflow.
5. Define the Time frame for auto approval. By default, this is set to Never auto approve, but you can choose to auto-approve after one or two days if no action is taken.
6. Click Save.

Manage Rule Approvals

This section outlines how to manage the approval lifecycle for feature flag rules. It explains how to submit rule changes for review, how designated approvers can review and act on pending requests, and how approved changes are finally applied to production.

By following this workflow, you can ensure that rule-level changes are reviewed, tracked, and published in a controlled manner.

Send a Rule for Approval

1. Within your feature flag, go to the Rules tab.
2. Create a new rule or modify an existing one.
3. Click Send for Approval.
   The rule status changes to Approvals pending. You cannot toggle this rule to On until it is approved.
   

Once a rule is sent for approval, all users designated as approvers are notified automatically. Each approver receives an email informing them that a feature flag rule is awaiting review. Approvers can use this notification to quickly navigate to the rule, review the proposed changes, and take the necessary action without manually searching for it in the application.

Review and Take Action on a Rule Approval Request

If you are a designated approver, you can take action on pending approval requests either directly from the approval email notification or from within the VWO application.

When you take action from the email notification, you are redirected to the VWO application, where you can follow the same review and approval steps outlined below.

To review the request from the application:

1. Navigate to the feature flag rule with the Approvals pending status.
2. Select the rule to open the review interface.
   
3. As an approver, you can choose to perform one of the following actions:
   • Approve: Authorize the change. You must enter a comment before approving.
     After approval:
     • The rule status changes to Approved.
     • The rule owner receives an email notification confirming approval.

     • Users can now enable the rule directly from the email notification or within the VWO application.

       Attention: Approving a rule does not automatically make the changes live. Approved changes must be manually enabled to make them live. For more information, see Enable Approved Changes.
   • Need Changes: Reject the current draft and send it back to the creator for modifications. You must enter a reason for disapproval before confirming. For more information, see Manage Disapproved Rules.
     
     After disapproval:
     • The rule status changes to Approval denied.
     • The rule owner receives an email notification indicating that changes are required.
   • View Timeline: Click the Timeline icon to open the rule timeline where you can see who created, edited, or sent the rule for approval. You can also add and respond to comments in the timeline. While reviewing, commenting, or responding in the timeline:
     • Add contextual comments for clarity.
     • Use @mentions to notify specific users.
     • Use # to reference specific variations or metrics.

Manage Disapproved Rules

A rule is disapproved when the approver marks it as Need Changes. In this case, the rule owner can:

1. Open the rule from the email notification or the application.
2. Click View comments to open the approval timeline.
3. Review the approver’s comments explaining why approval was denied.
4. [Optional] Respond directly in the timeline.
5. Update the rule as required.
6. Click Send for Approval to resubmit the rule for approval.

This approval workflow keeps feedback centralized and ensures faster iteration cycles.

Enable Approved Changes

After a rule is approved, its status changes to Approved, and the rule owner is notified via email.

The rule owner can then enable the rule in one of the following ways:

• Click Enable Now in the approval email notification, or
• Toggle on the rule directly within the application.

This final step ensures that approved changes are intentionally merged into production, maintaining full control and governance over feature releases.

Verify the Rule Approval Setup

To verify that the approval flow is functioning correctly:

• Check Rule State
  Go to the Rules tab and ensure that any newly created rule in a production environment remains toggled off and displays an Approvals pending tag immediately after creation.
  
• Timeline Verification
  Open the Rule Timeline for a specific rule. You should see entries for Rule sent for approval and Approved rule with corresponding timestamps and usernames.
  

Troubleshooting

FAQs

• How many rule approvers can I add?
  You can select up to four designated approvers per account.
   
• Does approval follow a hierarchy?
  No. Any of the designated approvers can approve or reject a request, they do not need to follow a specific hierarchy.
   
• Can I use this for non-production environments?
  Yes, but organizations typically use Open Access for Development or Staging environments to enable faster iteration without formal approvals.

Need more help?

For further assistance or more information, contact VWO Support.