A tour of the window

Rally's window has a sidebar on the left and your work on the right. The sidebar is how you get anywhere: a narrow strip of three buttons down its left edge, and next to it the list for whichever button you picked. Whatever you open from that list fills the rest of the window.

This page walks through each part. Each one has a chapter of its own later; here you only need to know what is where.

The section buttons#

Three buttons run down the left edge of the window, each an icon with its name under it. Click one and the list beside it changes.

• Threads lists every Thread and Breakout you take part in. A red number on the button counts what is waiting on you: Threads where you were mentioned, have unread messages or have not looked yet, plus anyone asking to join something of yours. The dock icon and the Mac menu bar show the same number.
• Channels lists every Channel you can see.
• Activity is a feed of what has happened to you lately, such as someone adding you to a Thread.

Your avatar sits at the bottom of the strip and opens the account menu, described below.

The top of the list#

Whichever section you are in, its name sits at the top of the list, with a few round buttons beside it:

• Restart to update appears only when a new version of Rally has downloaded. See Keeping Rally up to date.
• Search organization searches everything you can read. See Search and links.
• Import a conversation brings in a conversation you had in ChatGPT or Claude. See Bring in a conversation from Claude or ChatGPT.

There is no button here for a new Thread. Threads start inside a Channel, which you will do on the next page.

The Channels list#

A Channel is a team's list of Threads: one for a team, a client or a long-running project. A new Organization has one, General, so this list looks a little lonely at first.

• Pinned comes first, once you have pinned a Channel. Drag pinned Channels up and down to put them in your own order.
• All channels follows, with every other Channel you can see. It starts A to Z. Click the sort button beside All channels to switch between A–Z, Recent (newest activity first) and Needs attention (Channels with something new for you first). Rally remembers your choice.
• Each row shows the Channel's icon and name, a lock if the Channel is private, and when it last had activity.
• A bold name and a red line such as 2 new threads mean Threads were added to that Channel since you last opened it. Opening the Channel clears it.
• Click a row to open the Channel. Right-click it for Pin or Unpin.
• The + beside All channels opens New channel. Type a name and click Create channel.

Channels has the whole story, including private Channels and the Channel's own menu.

The Threads list#

The Threads list is where you jump back into work you are part of.

• Pinned comes first, once you have pinned something. It holds the Threads and Breakouts you pinned, in the order you drag them into.
• Threads follows, with every Thread and Breakout you take part in. The label at the right of its heading says how they are sorted. Click it to switch between Recent (the newest activity first, which is where it starts), A–Z and Needs attention, which puts whatever is counted on the Threads button at the top.
• Each row shows the Thread's name and, under it, a small chip for each Channel it sits in. A Breakout's row names the Thread it belongs to instead.
• A small dot at the start of a row says the Thread wants something from you. Status dots explains every dot.
• Click a row to open it. Right-click it for Pin or Unpin. Arranging your Threads covers pinning and archiving.

Until you have started a Thread or someone has added you to one, the list says Threads you start or are added to appear here. That changes on the next page.

The Activity list#

Activity is the list to check when you have been away. It shows what happened to you, newest first, grouped under Today, Yesterday and earlier dates:

• someone added you to a Thread;
• someone mentioned you;
• someone started a Thread or a Breakout you can see;
• Rally finished a run in a Thread you are part of;
• someone merged a Breakout into a Thread, or a Thread into a Channel.

Each item names who did it, the Thread or Breakout, and the Channel it is in. Click an item to open what it names. Anything new since you last looked has a small dot at the end of its row, and opening the Activity list counts as looking.

If people have asked to join a Thread or Breakout you started, their requests sit at the top under Requests, with a check mark to approve and a cancel sign to decline. Click the request itself to see it in full first. Who can see what has more on requests.

When there is nothing to show, the list says Nothing new. Activity about your threads shows up here. Enjoy it while it lasts.

To make the sidebar narrower or wider, drag its right edge.

The account menu#

Your avatar at the bottom of the section buttons opens the account menu:

• Restart to Update appears at the top when a new version of Rally has downloaded and is ready. See Keeping Rally up to date.
• Sidekicks opens the Sidekicks window, covered in Sidekicks.
• Settings opens the Settings window. ⌘ , does the same from anywhere.
• Log out signs you out of Rally on this Mac.

If your account can belong to several Organizations, the menu also lists them under Organizations, with a check mark beside the one you are in, and any waiting Invitations. See Belonging to several Organizations.

For help, the Help menu in the Mac menu bar has a link to the Rally website, and Contacting support tells you how to reach a person.

A Channel's screen#

Open a Channel and its screen fills the window. At the top is the Channel's name in a rounded pill; click it for the Channel's menu.

Below that is the Channel's feed: one entry per Thread, oldest at the top and newest at the bottom, nearest the message box. Each entry says who started the Thread and when, gives a line or two about what it is for, and ends with a chip carrying the Thread's name. Click the chip to open the Thread.

At the bottom is a message box that says Start a thread in and the Channel's name. Type what you want and send it, and Rally starts a new Thread in this Channel with your message as its first one. This box is the way to start a Thread in Rally.

Nobody chats on a Channel's screen, and Rally never replies there. The talking happens in the Threads.

A Thread#

A Thread is where the work happens: the messages between you, your teammates and Rally, with the message box at the bottom. The whole of chapter 2 is about this part.

At the top floats the Thread's title pill, with its icon and name. Click the name to open the Thread's menu: who is in it, its Sidekicks and Breakouts, renaming, links and sharing all live there. Names, icons and colours shows you around it.

Panes side by side#

Rally shows at most two things side by side, and slides them along as you go deeper.

1. Open a Thread from a Channel and it opens in a pane on the right, with the Channel still on the left.
2. Open a Breakout from that Thread and everything moves one step left: the Thread is now on the left, the Breakout on the right, and the Channel becomes a small breadcrumb in the header above the Thread. See Breakouts.
3. Open a file or document from the Breakout and everything moves left again. The Thread joins the breadcrumbs. Opening, docking and downloading has the details on files.

Click a breadcrumb to step back to it. The close button on a Thread's title pill takes you back to its Channel on its own. A Thread you open from the Threads list or Activity opens beside its home Channel, so the Channel is always one step back. A Thread in no Channel you can see opens on its own.

Drag the edge between two panes to make one wider and the other narrower. If the window is too narrow for two panes, Rally shows one and keeps the rest as breadcrumbs.

Inside a Thread, a docked file and the built-in browser share the right-hand pane with Breakouts. Opening a file or the browser from the Thread hides an open Breakout until you close it again. See Research and the built-in browser.

Rally remembers where you were#

When you quit Rally and open it again, it returns to what you were last looking at, with your sidebar width and your place in the conversation as you left them. The first time, or if that place has gone, it opens a pinned Channel, or else General.

This memory belongs to this Mac; your other devices keep their own.

Next, put something in it: start your first Thread.