Statsig gates return false until initialize finishes its fetch

TL;DR

Add a readiness check that blocks traffic until the first config fetch completes. Agents that evaluate a gate before initialize resolves get false for every user, which looks like the gate is broken or the rollout is at zero.

Steps

1. Await Statsig initialize during app startup before evaluating any gate or config. Treat pre-init evaluations as unknown, not as false. Add a readiness check that blocks traffic until the first config fetch completes.

When to use

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When not to use

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Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

Source: Official docs (Statsig server Node SDK): initialize performs a network request, and only after it completes are SDK operations synchronous. Gates are always closed/off, returning false, by default. Agents that evaluate a gate before initialize resolves get false for every user, which looks like the gate is broken or the rollout is at zero. The fix is awaiting initialize at startup before serving traffic.

Verified resolution: Await Statsig initialize during app startup before evaluating any gate or config. Treat pre-init evaluations as unknown, not as false. Add a readiness check that blocks traffic until the first config fetch completes.

Source URL: https://docs.statsig.com/server/nodejsServerSDK