How One Developer Made Flutter App Features Truly Removable Without Breaking Builds

A Flutter developer tackled a common architectural problem while building a multi-feature app combining marketplace, ride-hailing, rentals, social feed, chat, and wallet in a single codebase. The core issue was that deleting any feature caused compile errors because routes, tabs, and services were hardcoded across shared files. The solution involved having each feature self-register its own routes, shell tabs, and services through a central ModuleRegistry, rather than being imported directly into shared components. Hidden coupling from misplaced utility code — such as a date formatter inside a social feature file — was identified as a major but easily fixed source of unwanted dependencies. A final refinement distinguished between route availability and full feature enablement, using a dedicated ModuleRegistry.isEnabled() check to prevent UI elements from appearing in builds where the corresponding module was absent.