Flattening is the restructure that reduces a deep chain to a shallow one while preserving who can reach what. Done carelessly it is the fastest way to break access at scale; done bottom-up with verification, it is a sequence of small, individually safe steps.
The bottom-up method#
Work from the deepest level toward the root:
- Pick the target maximum depth and identify every chain exceeding it.
- For the deepest link, reconnect its members directly to the level above, so effective access is preserved by construction.
- Verify effective access for the affected population before removing the now-bypassed group.
- Repeat one level at a time; never collapse multiple levels in one step.
Why top-down flattening fails#
Restructuring from the top changes access for the maximum number of people per step and compounds errors downward. Bottom-up inverts both properties: each step touches the smallest population, and a mistake is caught while it is one level big.
VisualizerEngine
How VisualizerEngine does it
Depth analysis ranks the chains against your target, what-if simulation previews each collapse step with its full blast radius, and the ordered implementation plan sequences the bottom-up work. Snapshot diffs verify each step preserved access before the next begins.