How Does Inheritance Work in Node-Level Authorization in KTern Planner?

How Does Inheritance Work in Node-Level Authorization in KTern Planner?

Notes
Authorization Inheritance allows child tasks to automatically adopt the editing permissions of their parent tasks, reducing the need to manually assign User Groups at every level of the project hierarchy.

What is Authorization Inheritance?

When a User Group is assigned as the Editor for a parent task, all child tasks under it automatically inherit that authorization. This means members of the parent's editor group can also edit child tasks without needing a separate assignment.

How Inheritance Flows

  • Assignment at parent level automatically propagates to all child tasks below as inherited authorization
  • A child task can be assigned a different User Group in its own Editor field — this does not override the parent's inherited group but instead adds to it, making both groups authorized to edit that task
  • Once a child task holds both an assigned Editor Group and an inherited group, all further descendants below it inherit both groups cumulatively
  • Inheritance is additive and propagates downward — every level accumulates the editor groups from all ancestor tasks above it

    • Inheritance Example

    Project Root

    ├── Phase 1.0  →  Editor: Finance Team

    |   ├── Task 1.1  →  Inherits: Finance Team  ✓

    |   └── Task 1.2  →  Editor: Dev Team, Inherits: Finance Team

    |       └── Task 1.2.1  →  Inherits: Dev Team, Finance Team  ✓

    └── Phase 2.0  →  Editor: QA Team

        └── Task 2.1  →  Inherits: QA Team  ✓

    The Inherited Editor Field

    Each task in KTern Planner shows two authorization-related fields: the Editor field (explicitly assigned group) and the Inherited Editor field (group inherited from the parent). If both exist, the explicit Editor field takes priority.

    Best Practices for Inheritance

    1. Assign User Groups at the highest relevant level to reduce manual setup
    2. ​Use overrides only when a sub-team needs exclusive ownership of specific tasks
    3. ​Periodically review inherited assignments when project structure changes
    4. ​When moving tasks (indent/outdent), be aware that inheritance source will shift accordingly