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uid: input-system-layout-inheritance
---

# Layout inheritance

You can derive a layout from an existing layout. This process is based on merging the information from the derived layout on top of the information that the base layout contains.

* For layouts defined as types, the base layout is the layout of the base type (if any).
* For layouts defined in JSON, you can specify the base layout in the `extends` property of the root node.
* For layouts created in code using [`InputControlLayout.Builder`](xref:UnityEngine.InputSystem.Layouts.InputControlLayout.Builder), you can specify a base layout using [`InputControlLayout.Builder.Extend()`](xref:UnityEngine.InputSystem.Layouts.InputControlLayout.Builder).