---
name: app-configuration-ac-segments
title: Creating a segment
description: Use segments to define a group of users or resources based on rules. Feature flags can target segments to deliver variants of a feature based on the needs like beta launches and experiments.
last-updated: 2026-07-27
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Creating a segment
{: #ac-segments}

Use segments to define a group of users or resources based on rules. Feature flags can target segments to deliver variants of a feature based on the needs like beta launches and experiments.
{: shortdesc}

By default, the Segments pane displays the list of segments that are created in the current App Configuration service instance along with **Name of the segment**, **labels** , and **Last Updated**.

![List of segments](images/ac-segments-default.png "List of segments"){: caption="List of segments" caption-side="bottom"}

## Create a segment
{: #ac-create-segment}

To create a segment, complete these steps:

1. In the App Configuration console, click **Segments**.

1. Click **Create**. The side-panel opens with fields for creating a new segment.

   ![Create a segment](images/ac-segments-create.png "Creating a segment"){: caption="Creating a new segment" caption-side="bottom"}

1. Provide the segment details:
   - **Name** - name of the segment.
   - **Description** - add a description of the segment, which is optional.
   - Optionally, define **Tags** that are required to identify with the segment.
   - Specify a rule for including users to a segment in the **Include user attributes in segment**. For further details about adding users to a segment, refer [here](#adding-users-to-segment).

1. Click **Create**.

## Adding user in a segment
{: #adding-users-to-segment}

Attributes specify the context of a request that you want to be evaluated as part of a decision. You can add user attributes in a segment by defining rules. You can define more than one rule.

To define a rule, at the time of creating or editing a segment, in **Include user attributes in segment**, add the following details:

1. Add an **Attribute name**. For example, the attribute may be email or part of user name.

1. Select an operator to be used for the evaluation from the list.
   - startsWith
   - notStartsWith
   - endsWith
   - notEndsWith
   - is
   - isNot
   - contains
   - notContains
   - greaterThan
   - greaterThanEquals
   - lesserThan
   - lesserThanEquals

1. **Enter values** for the operator selected.

1. Click **Save attribute**.

## How segment attributes are evaluated
{: #segment-attributes-evaluation}

When you define attributes in a segment, keep the following evaluation behavior in mind:

- Within a segment, different attributes are evaluated with **AND**.
- Within a single segment attribute, multiple values are evaluated with **OR**.

For example, if you want to match production users in the `eu-de` region, add two attributes to the same segment:
- `environment` **is** `production`
- `region` **is** `eu-de`

Both conditions must be true for a user to be included in the segment.

If you want to match users from either `eu-de` or `us-east`, you can supply both values for the `region` attribute. A user that matches any one of those values satisfies that attribute condition.

## Segments - overflow menu
{: #segments-overflow-menu}

The overflow menu for each of the segments (three vertical dots) consists of **Edit**, **Copy**, and **Delete** operations.

![Overflow menu for a segment](images/ac-segments-overflow-menu.png "Overflow menu for a segment"){: caption="Overflow menu for a segment" caption-side="bottom"}

- When **Edit** option is selected, you can make changes to the **Name**, **Description**, add or modify the rule for **Including user attributes in segment**.
- When **Copy** option is selected, the segment information is copied and you need to modify the **Name** of the segment. Optionally, modify the other details based on your need.
- When **Delete** option is selected, a confirmation window is displayed to seek confirmation to delete the selected segment. Deleting option will permanently delete the segment information and the action cannot be undone.

For targeting feature flags to segments, refer [here](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/app-configuration?topic=app-configuration-ac-feature-flags&format=markdown#targeting-segment-with-feature-flag).