docs: clarify that time intervals are not inherited by child routes

[xenon898]

What

The <route> docs say "optional configuration parameters are inherited from its parent node if not set", but mute_time_intervals and active_time_intervals are unconditionally set from the current route's config in newRoute — they lack the nil-check that group_by, group_wait, group_interval, and repeat_interval use, so they are never inherited.

This trips users up when they set mute_time_intervals on a parent route expecting it to mute the whole subtree (see #3211). This PR documents the actual behavior in docs/configuration.md:

• the <route> "inherited from its parent" sentence now notes the exception
• the mute_time_intervals field comment explains it is not inherited, and how to mute a subtree
• the active_time_intervals field comment notes it is not inherited

Docs-only, no functional change.

Closes #3211

Follow-up to #3538 (attempted to change the behavior; closed unmerged).

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Advanced

Run ID: 4d889ebe-ec9a-4eea-a797-b07fd1351a23

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 5200ea3 and 15a10ac.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• docs/configuration.md

Included review availability: Your plan provides up to 8 included reviews per hour; 7 remain after this review.

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The route configuration documentation now states that mute_time_intervals and active_time_intervals are not inherited by child routes. It also explains that each descendant route with a receiver must define its own mute interval.

Changes

Route time interval documentation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Clarify route interval scope docs/configuration.md	The <route> introduction and both parameter descriptions state that mute_time_intervals and active_time_intervals apply only to the route where they are defined. The mute interval guidance explains how to mute a route subtree.

Estimated code review effort: 1 (Trivial) | ~2 minutes

Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 15a10

This change clarifies that route time intervals are not inherited by child routes. It does not alter runtime behavior and is mergeable after normal documentation checks.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the documentation change: time intervals are not inherited by child routes.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description explains the current behavior, affected fields, documentation updates, scope, linked issue, and absence of functional changes. It does not reproduce the checklist or release-notes bloc…
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The documentation changes satisfy issue #3211 by documenting that mute_time_intervals and active_time_intervals are not inherited and by explaining that child routes must be configured separately when…
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes are limited to the requested documentation clarification. No unrelated or functional changes are included.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 0 functions across 0…

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[SoloJacobs]

#5440 Already meantions this: Please don't close the original issue.

[xenon898]

Apologies — I did not spot #5440 before opening this. It predates this PR and is more complete (it also lists which parameters are inherited), so closing in its favour. Thanks @SoloJacobs; #3211 stays open for #5440 to resolve.

[SoloJacobs]

@xenon898 Looks like the other contributors won't cleanup there changes. Do you want to pick them up?

[xenon898]

Thanks @SoloJacobs — happy to pick this up.

Before I do, want to confirm direction rather than burn a third attempt on the wrong one. Looking at newRoute (dispatch/route.go): every other route option follows the same pattern — start from the parent's resolved value, only overwrite if the child explicitly sets it (receiver, group_by, group_wait, group_interval, repeat_interval; labels additionally merges rather than replacing). mute_time_intervals/active_time_intervals are the only fields that don't follow this — they're unconditionally set from the child's own YAML, so an omitted field becomes [] instead of inheriting the parent's value.

Two ways to close this out:

1. Docs-only: accurately document the current behavior (fixing docs: note mute/active time intervals are not inherited #5440's inaccurate "merging" framing, and dropping any Fixes/Closes trailer since the inconsistency itself remains).
2. Behavior fix: make these two fields follow the same inherit-unless-set pattern as the others, matching @benridley's original "this is not intentional" from Fix child routes not inheriting time interval configuration #3538 — then document the corrected behavior.

Which do you want? Happy to do either.

[SoloJacobs]

We will do a docs only change, and keep the issue open. The project is not ready for breaking changes inside the config. Another note: the new receiver labels are also not consistent with the other types of inheritance (as you pointed out). That's just something to keep in mind to not overclaim.