Locked

The state of a node whose prerequisites haven't all completed. Locked is structural, not a problem state.

Locked is the state of a Tree node whose prerequisites haven't all completed. A locked node is visible on the graph but greyed out. It can't be started, and the tool prevents anyone from claiming it until its prerequisites resolve.

Structural, not stuck

Locked is a structural state, not a problem state. It describes a node that's waiting on prerequisites as planned, not a node that's stuck.

This distinguishes it from "blocked," which describes a task waiting on something that should have happened by now (an unresponsive reviewer, a missing vendor decision, an external dependency that hasn't materialized).

Vocabulary matters

The vocabulary distinction matters because it shapes how teams report status.

  • A locked node is a fact about the graph.
  • A blocked node is an escalation.

Conflating the two creates noise: teams escalate dependency states that don't need attention, and signals about actual blockers get lost in the noise.

How locked nodes appear

In Tree, locked nodes are rendered with reduced visual weight: lower opacity, no fill color, dimmed text. The prerequisites that are keeping a node locked can be traced by hovering or clicking. The team can see exactly what needs to complete before this node unlocks.

The default state

Locked is the default state for most nodes during most of a project's lifetime. Only nodes at the entry points (no prerequisites) and nodes near completion are not locked.

Treating locked as the normal state, rather than as a fault, is part of Tree's broader argument that dependency structure isn't dysfunction.

LAST UPDATED · 2026-05-11