Glossary

Every word Rally uses for something of its own, in alphabetical order. Each entry is short and points to the page that explains it properly. Old names are listed too, with an arrow to the name Rally uses today, so if a button or message uses a word you cannot find anywhere else in this manual, look here.

A#

Activity. The third button at the left edge of the window. Its list shows what happened to you lately, such as being added to a Thread or mentioned, with requests to join at the top. See A tour of the window.

Administrator. An Organization role. Administrators manage members, invitations, Organization settings and the Organization's connections. Where this manual says "an owner or administrator", either can do it. See Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests.

Archive. Taking a Thread out of everyone's lists and stopping its activity, while keeping what it holds. Archiving is not deleting. See Arranging your Threads.

Artifact. A file Rally made for you and put in a Thread: a document, a picture, a voice recording, a zip archive or a live site. Artifacts are listed under More in the Thread's menu and keep every version. See Artifacts.

Attachment. A file you add to a message you send. See Attaching files.

Automation. The old name for a Sidekick. A few labels and messages still say it.

B#

Background agent. See Helper.

Breadcrumb. The small name at the start of a pane's header, standing in for a Channel or Thread that has moved off screen to make room. Click it to step back. See A tour of the window.

Breakout. A side conversation branched off a Thread, so you can explore an idea without derailing the main one. It starts private to whoever made it. Old name: Substream. See Breakouts.

C#

Channel. A team's list of Threads, for an ongoing area of work such as a team, a client or a project. You start a Thread from a Channel's message box. A Channel is open to the whole Organization or private to its members. Every Organization starts with one called General. Old names: Space, Project. (Before the rename, "Channel" meant what is now a Thread.) See Channels.

Channel feed. The list of a Channel's Threads on its screen, oldest at the top and newest beside the message box. A private Thread you are not in is not listed. See Channels.

Connection. One link between Rally and another tool, such as your Gmail or your team's Linear. Each connection is either personal or the Organization's. See Settings → Connections.

Connector. A kind of tool Rally can connect to: Google, GitHub, Slack and so on. Each one has a card in Settings → Connections, and you connect it to make a connection. See Connecting your other tools.

Continue. The only button in the Rally could not open that link window. It closes the window and does not try the link again. See When a link won't open.

D#

Deep link. A link that opens the Rally app on your Mac at a particular place: an invitation, the end of signing in, the end of connecting a tool, a Channel or a Thread. When Rally refuses one, it tells you why. See When a link won't open.

Digest. Whatever is still unread in your Activity, sent at the start and end of your day. See The digest.

G#

Guest. Someone outside your Organization who has been invited into one conversation by email. A guest has no role in the Organization and sees only what was shared with them. See Sharing with people outside your Organization.

H#

Helper. An extra agent Rally starts to do part of a big job side by side with the rest. A line above the message box counts the ones running, as background agents. See Helpers, other conversations and receipts.

L#

Live site. A web page or small app Rally builds and publishes at its own public address. Its card in the conversation is labelled Site. See Live sites.

Lockdown mode. A setting on the Mac that protects your saved sign-in with your Mac's own keychain. See Signing in, signing out and Lockdown mode.

M#

Main. A Thread's own conversation, as opposed to its Breakouts. An open Breakout sits to its right. See Breakouts.

Member. The everyday Organization role. See Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests.

Memory. Facts Rally keeps between conversations, each one a single sentence, so you only have to tell it something once. A memory belongs to a Thread, a Sidekick, you or the whole Organization, and that decides who it helps. See Memory and coming back later.

N#

Needs attention. A way to sort the Threads list that puts the Threads and Breakouts that want something from you at the top. The Mac menu bar uses the same words for the same list. See Arranging your Threads.

O#

Organization. Your team's shared home in Rally. Everything else (Channels, Threads, Sidekicks, connections) lives inside one. Old name: Workspace, which still turns up in a few places, including some macOS permission messages. See Create or join an Organization.

Organization connection. A connection made with Connect for organization. Everyone in the Organization can use it through Rally. Only an owner or administrator can set one up or fix it. Compare personal connection. See Settings → Connections.

Origin. The place a Thread started, such as the Slack thread it came from. Rally records it when the Thread is created and attaches it to the Thread. See Resources: things you bring in.

Owner. The person who created the Organization. Owners can do everything an administrator can. See Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests.

P#

Personal connection. A connection made with Connect for me. It is private to you and acts as your own account in the other tool. It is separate from any Organization connection to the same tool. See Settings → Connections.

Pin. Keeping a Thread, Breakout or Channel at the top of its list in the sidebar, for you alone. See Arranging your Threads.

Plugin. A bundle of related abilities Rally loads when a request needs it, such as the Web, the Terminal, or one for each connected tool. Loading a plugin never gives Rally more permission than it already had. See How Rally works.

Private. Seen only by the people listed in it. A private Thread says Private under People in its menu. Its opposite is Public: everyone in the Organization can see it. See Who can see what.

Project. The old name for a Channel.

Public link. The web address of a live site. Anyone who has it can view the latest version, so share it with care. See Live sites.

R#

Rally. The app, and also the name of the AI agent that works inside it. "Open Rally" means the app; "ask Rally" means the agent. See How Rally works.

Receipt. The record Rally keeps of every action that changes something in another tool, so that a retried run never does the same thing twice. See Helpers, other conversations and receipts.

Reconnect required. A connection's status when the other tool stopped accepting Rally's saved sign-in. Fix it with Refresh. See Settings → Connections.

Refresh. On a connection, signing in to the other tool again to renew it. It does not fetch new data. See Settings → Connections.

Request ID. The reference shown on a Run failed card. Send it to support so they can find that exact run. See Contacting support.

Resource. Anything a Thread holds that came from outside: an uploaded file, a document from a connected tool, an email. Things Rally made are artifacts instead. See Resources: things you bring in.

Roles. The standing a person has in an Organization: owner, administrator or member. Guests have no role. See Roles: owners, administrators, members and guests.

Run. One stretch of Rally working on a request, from start until it answers, is stopped or fails. A Sidekick's run is one time it does its job. See While Rally works.

S#

Sidekick. A helper you save once and reuse. It can run on a schedule, when something happens in another tool, by email or webhook, or whenever you call on it. Old name: Automation. See What a Sidekick is.

Skill. A short guide Rally reads before a tricky kind of job, so it does it properly. A skill adds know-how, never permissions. See How Rally works.

Space. The old name for a Channel.

Status dot. The coloured dot and label showing one state for a Thread or Breakout. The labels are New to you, You were mentioned, Running, Needs input, Unread, Latest run completed, Latest run stopped and Needs intervention. See Status dots.

Steering. Sending a message while Rally is in the middle of a run, so it changes course without starting again. Your message shows Unseen until Rally has read it. See While Rally works.

Substream. The old name for a Breakout.

T#

Terminal. Rally's own private Linux computer, where it runs code, works on data and builds files. Your Organization decides how far it may reach on the internet. See Code, data and the Terminal.

Thread. A conversation about one piece of work, where you, your teammates and Rally work together. Every Thread lives in at least one Channel. Old names: Channel, Work stream, stream. See Your first Thread.

Title pill. The rounded name at the top of a Thread or Breakout. Click it for the menu that holds its people, Sidekicks, Breakouts and settings. See Names, icons and colours.

Trigger. What starts a Sidekick: a time, an interval, an event in another tool, a webhook, an email, or starting it by hand. See Triggers and schedules.

U#

Update channel. How quickly new versions of the Mac app reach you: Stable (at most one release a day, the default) or Faster (every release). See Keeping Rally up to date.

V#

Version. A saved earlier copy of an artifact. Rally keeps every version and numbers them, so v3 is the third. See Artifacts.

W#

Wake-up. A reminder Rally sets itself to come back to a Thread later and carry on with a job. See Memory and coming back later.

Watch. A switch, still to come in the Mac app, that will tell Rally to notice when a resource's original changes. See Resources: things you bring in.

Work stream. The old name for a Thread. You may also see "stream" or "workstream" in a few places.

Workspace. The old name for an Organization. Slack also has workspaces of its own, so this manual says "Slack workspace" when it means Slack's.