# Find an inheritance cycle before it complicates a rank change

Groups should have a clear inheritance direction. Inspect a suspected cycle before adding another parent that could make permission results difficult to explain.

## Follow the procedure

1. List the affected groups and write down the intended hierarchy in plain language. Separate staff, donor and event roles when they serve different purposes.
2. Inspect each group’s parents through a fresh web-editor session or the parent info command. Follow every inherited edge in the part of the hierarchy you plan to change.
3. Look for a route that returns to the starting group. A relationship such as helper inheriting moderator while moderator inherits helper is a design error.
4. Choose the one parent edge that contradicts the intended hierarchy and record its exact contexts. Remove that edge alone in a test copy or controlled session.
5. Compare effective permissions for a member of each affected group. Pay attention to negative nodes and metadata priorities as well as command access.
6. Apply the reviewed edge removal and keep the new hierarchy diagram with the staff record. Adding a track does not repair or replace group inheritance.

## Check the result

Each group should inherit from the intended lower-level parents without a path back to itself. Test a representative ordinary account at each affected rank. Confirm that a helper still has basic player features but does not gain the higher rank’s administration commands.

## If the result is wrong

If an expected feature disappears after removing the cycle, locate the specific node and put it in the appropriate parent group. Restore the saved edge only as a temporary recovery step if needed. Avoid compensating with a broad wildcard, which can conceal the hierarchy problem while granting unrelated access.

## References and related help

- [LuckPerms maintainer reference](https://luckperms.net/wiki/Parent-Commands)
- [LuckPerms maintainer reference](https://luckperms.net/wiki/Web-Editor)
- [LuckPerms maintainer reference](https://luckperms.net/wiki/Tracks)
- [Create Minecraft ranks and inheritance with LuckPerms](https://help.cloudexa-hosting.com/books/game-hosting/page/create-minecraft-ranks-and-inheritance-with-luckperms)
- [Trace a denied Minecraft command with LuckPerms verbose](https://help.cloudexa-hosting.com/books/minecraft-plugins/page/trace-a-denied-minecraft-command-with-luckperms-verbose)