You create parent categories by building out a data category group in Setup. The group gives you the fixed "All" root, and from there you add parents and nest children beneath them.
- Open Data Category Setup
From Setup, type Data Category in the Quick Find box and select Data Category Setup. You see any existing category groups. Create a new group or click into an existing one to edit its tree.
- Add a top-level parent under "All"
Select the "All" node, then add a category. Categories you add directly under "All" become your top-level parents, such as Products or Geography. Give each a clear, broad name that users will recognize when browsing.
- Nest child categories
Click a parent node, then add a subcategory to place a child beneath it. Repeat to build the branch. To add a peer at the same level, add a sibling instead, which shares the same parent. Stay within five levels deep.
- Activate the group
Activate the category group so authors and users can use it. An inactive group is invisible to everyone except setup. Activation is what makes the parent hierarchy available on article edit pages and in search filters.
- Set category visibility
Configure visibility per role, permission set, or profile. Choose All, None, or Custom, and grant the parent level that fits each audience. Remember that granting a category also reveals its parents and children automatically.
The fixed top parent every group starts with. You cannot remove it; all your parent categories hang beneath it.
Places a new category as a child of the selected node, making the selected node its parent in the tree.
Places a new category at the same level as the selected node, so both share the same parent.
The role, permission set, or profile setting (All, None, or Custom) that decides which categories, and therefore which branches, a user can see.
- Granting a deep child category still reveals every parent above it, so a "narrow" grant can expose a whole branch.
- The default ceiling is 100 categories per group and five hierarchy levels; plan the parent tree to live within them.
- An inactive category group is hidden from authors and users, so a freshly built hierarchy does nothing until you activate it.
- Moving a parent later relocates its entire subtree, which can shift the visibility and tagging of many articles at once.