Folders nest as deep as you like. What makes them useful is not the nesting — it is that sharing runs downhill.
How inheritance works
Share a folder with somebody and they get everything inside it, at every depth, for ever — including things added later.
| Folder | Shared with | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Everyone | Everyone. |
| Company / Finance | Accounts group | Accounts only — its own rule replaces what it inherited. |
| Company / Finance / 2026 | — | Accounts, inherited from Finance. |
| Company / Brand | — | Everyone, inherited from Company. |
So you set a rule where the decision actually is, and the tree does the rest.
How a rule is found
When you open something, the resolver walks up the folder tree from where you are, looking for the first rule that names you — you personally, a group you are in, a role you hold, or everyone.
- Are you an administrator? Then you see it.
- Do you own it? Then you see it.
- Is there a rule on this file? Use it.
- Is there a rule on the folder, or any folder above it? Use the nearest one.
- Nothing? Then you have no access, and it does not appear anywhere.
No access means invisible, not locked. A folder you cannot see is not shown greyed out or with a padlock — it is simply not there. That is deliberate: the name of a folder is itself information, and “Redundancies 2026” should not be visible to the people in it.
When more than one rule applies
You might be named personally and be in a group that was named. When several rules apply at the same level, the strongest wins: edit beats view, and being allowed to download once is enough.
Access is never reduced by adding somebody to a group. That is the right way round — a rule that quietly took access away when somebody joined a team would be impossible to reason about.
Setting it up
- Make a folder for each thing that has a different audience. Not one per document type — one per group of people who should see it.
- Share at the highest level you can.
- Only put a rule further down where the audience genuinely narrows.
- Give folders a colour so people find them by shape rather than by reading.
A folder structure copied from how your files were organised on a laptop will not work here, because that structure was organised by topic. This one wants organising by audience first, topic second.
Where to go next
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