# Parent flow context question

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parent-flow-context-question/24691>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [12 April 2020 12:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parent-flow-context-question/24691 "2020-04-12T12:00:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dave/32/10827_2.png) [@Dave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Dave)\
**Post date:** [12 April 2020 12:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parent-flow-context-question/24691/1 "2020-04-12T12:00:50Z")

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I am successfully using flow.get('$parent.foo') in several subflows necessarily located in one, what has become overtime a very large flow, the result is node-red slows to a crawl when I am on that flow page, I want to split the flow on to 2 pages to get over this problem and the easiest solution would be to move the subflows to a new flow.

My question, is there any way to point $parent. to a specific flow page or constrained to having the subflows on the same flow page ( or perhaps converting all the flow.get / flow.set to global.get / global.set

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**Author:** ![Christian-Me](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/christian-me/32/10774_2.png) [@Christian-Me](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Christian-Me)\
**Post date:** [12 April 2020 12:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parent-flow-context-question/24691/2 "2020-04-12T12:13:34Z")

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Hi @Dave,

don't think that it is possible. As I know (but not for sure) a subfow is copied into each flow where it is used during deploy. They are not instances of the same thing in the runtime.  
This is why you don`t see the flow.context when you edit a subflow (which is painfull). I think you have to use global.context if you like to see the data on different flows / subflows.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [11 June 2020 12:13 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/parent-flow-context-question/24691/3 "2020-06-11T12:13:37Z")

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Closed on 11 June 2020 12:13 UTC

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