Until now the 'gamification' feature flag did nothing: it had no row in
app_settings, the admin couldn't toggle it, awardXP/awardCoins ignored
it, and the CSS only hid three dashboard widgets — XP bars in textbooks
stayed visible regardless.
Phase 1 closes every hole.
Backend (source of truth):
• migration 029 seeds feature_gamification_enabled=1
• new isGamificationEnabled() helper in gamification/_shared.js with a
30s cache + invalidateGamificationCache() for instant admin toggles
• awardXP / awardCoins / updateStreak / unlockAchievement /
checkAchievements all bail out when the flag is off
• /api/gamification/* and /api/shop/* (user routes) return 404 when
disabled; admin routes remain open so the switch itself is reachable
• adminController.updateFeatures gains 'gamification' in the allow-list
and invalidates the cache on flip
Frontend:
• LS.isGamificationEnabled() (synchronous, populated by loadFeatures)
so xp.js + applyCosmetics can bail without a round-trip
• xp.js load/add/flush become no-ops when the flag is off
• applyCosmetics skips the round-trip when off
• CSS .no-gamification rule expanded to cover .hero-xp-badge, .po-xp,
.xp-card, .xp-bar, #frames-section, and a universal [data-gamified]
hook for future blocks
Textbooks (Variant 2 of the plan):
• backend/scripts/wrap_textbook_xp.py — idempotent script that adds
data-gamified to 167 XP tags across 63 textbook files (chapters +
hubs, all subjects/grades). Single CSS rule now hides everything.
Verified end-to-end: with the flag off, awardXP/awardCoins write nothing;
flipping back restores normal behavior.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Maxim Dolgolyov