[DEPR]: Support for the FEATURES dictionary in Django settings

[kdmccormick]

This is a draft deprecation notice, following up from:

• [DEPR]: Add FEATURES = FeaturesProxy(...) to your django settings #37345

The listed Breaking Changes date is still tentative.
We will formally announce this and mark it as "Transition Unblocked" once the details are determined.

RFC Start Date

N/A -- Already Accepted

Target Plan Accepted Date

N/A -- Already Accepted

Target Transition Unblocked Date

Immediately -- Transition Already Unblocked (assuming you have followed #37345)

Earliest Breaking Changes Unblocked Date

2026-04-14 ("W" release)

Rationale

This completes the work started by:

• [DEPR]: Add FEATURES = FeaturesProxy(...) to your django settings #37345

TBC

Description

TBC

Task List

No response

[Akanshu-2u]

While working on this issue, I identified that several instances of the legacy FEATURES dictionary are still present in the edx-platform codebase:

    {
      "name": "FEATURES['CREATE_COURSE_WITH_DEFAULT_ENROLLMENT_START_DATE']",
      "is_active": false,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "xmodule.course_block"
    },
    {
      "name": "FEATURES['ENABLE_LEARNER_RECORDS']",
      "is_active": true,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "openedx.core.djangoapps.credentials.helpers"
    },
    {
      "name": "FEATURES['ENABLE_ORA_TEAM_SUBMISSIONS']",
      "is_active": false,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "lms.djangoapps.teams.toggles"
    },
    {
      "name": "FEATURES['ENTRANCE_EXAMS']",
      "is_active": false,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "openedx.core.toggles"
    },
    {
      "name": "FEATURES['MILESTONES_APP']",
      "is_active": true,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "common.djangoapps.util.milestones_helpers"
    },
    {
      "name": "FEATURES['SHOW_PROGRESS_BAR']",
      "is_active": false,
      "class": "SettingDictToggle",
      "module": "xmodule.seq_block"
    },

As a first step toward addressing this, I have opened a pull request to remove the remaining usages of the FEATURES dictionary:

• refactor: migrated FEATURES dict settings to top-level in core files and fixed related test files. #37389

Summary of Changes:

• Modified the SettingDictToggle class to SettingToggle.
• Removed the FEATURES dictionary.

This PR aims to serve as a solid starting point for the ongoing cleanup effort related to settings and feature toggles in the platform.

[robrap]

[inform] Here is a case-sensitive github search for FEATURES that can be used to find references.

• Note: Other repos and services may use their own FEATURES dict, so this ticket should be scoped to just LMS FEATURES dict references.

[kdmccormick]

@feanil , I'm currently updating references to FEATURES within openedx-platform.