Franchise System

FriendChise treats franchising as a first-class org lifecycle, not just an invite flow.

Parent vs child orgs

For contributors, the key hierarchy rule is Organization.parentId:

• If parentId is set, the org is a child franchisee org.
• If parentId is null, the org is the parent/root org.

Use that field when you need to tell whether code should treat an org as the franchisor or one of its franchisees.

Core flow

1. A franchisor generates a one-time token from the Franchisee page.
2. That token is stored as a FranchiseToken with invitedEmail and expiresAt.
3. The invitee visits /orgs/new and submits the token through the joinFranchise server action.
4. On success, the new org is created from the parent org and the joining user becomes its Owner.

What gets cloned

When a franchisee joins, the franchise service copies the operational baseline from the parent org:

• Roles
• Tasks
• Timetable settings

The cloning logic lives in lib/services/franchise.ts, which keeps the business rules isolated from the UI and server-action boundary.

Ownership and control

• The joining user is assigned as the child org's Owner.
• The parent org owner can view child orgs and pending tokens.
• Parent owners can extend or revoke tokens.
• Parent owners can also remove franchisees.

Related models and routes

• FranchiseToken stores the invite token metadata.
• Organization represents both the franchise root and each child org.
• Organization.parentId distinguishes parent/root orgs from child franchisee orgs.
• /orgs/new is the user-facing join entry point.
• joinFranchise is the server action that validates and applies the token.