Sidekicks in a Thread

So far, Sidekicks have lived in their own window. This page brings them into the room. Every Thread and Breakout has a list in its title pill menu that shows which Sidekicks belong to it, which ones Rally has loaded there, and which ones the team recommends.

The Sidekicks section#

Open a Thread or Breakout, click its name in the title pill (introduced in Names, icons and colours) and choose Sidekicks. The row shows how many there are, including 0. The list it opens shows:

• Sidekicks the Thread owns: the ones made from inside it, with the Thread scope;
• Sidekicks loaded in this conversation: instructions Rally has picked up here because they were relevant;
• Recommended Sidekicks: ones someone attached to the Thread, marked with a small star-shaped badge.

Each row shows the Sidekick's hexagon, name and description, plus a note when something is off: Paused, Draft or Unavailable. Click a row to open that Sidekick in the Sidekicks window.

Unavailable means Rally can no longer load that Sidekick here, for example because someone gave it a trigger (which turns it into delegated work) or because the people who could use it changed.

The Sidekicks row is there even when the Thread has none, so you always know where to look. If the list cannot be read, a Refresh row appears instead; click it to try again.

Add a Sidekick to a Thread#

At the bottom of the list is Add Sidekick. Click it for two choices.

• Attach existing Sidekick opens a dialog of the same name. Type in Search organization Sidekicks to find one, then click it. It is now recommended for this Thread.
• Create new Sidekick opens the Sidekicks window on a new draft, ready for you to describe (see Make a Sidekick).

Only Organization Sidekicks appear in the attach dialog. Your personal Sidekicks and other Threads' Sidekicks are not offered, because the rest of the room could not use them. If none exist yet the dialog says No organization Sidekicks found.

Add Sidekick appears only if you are allowed to manage Sidekicks in that Thread. If you do not see it, you are not.

What attaching does#

Attaching a Sidekick recommends it to every Breakout in the Thread. Hover over the star badge and Rally says exactly that: "Recommended for every breakout in this thread. Agents can load it when relevant; it isn't automatically loaded."

So Rally in that Thread and its Breakouts prefers the recommended Sidekick when the work calls for it, but still decides for itself whether it is relevant. Attach your "Brand voice" Sidekick to the marketing Thread and Rally will reach for it when drafting a launch post, not when someone asks what time the meeting is.

Recommendations affect work from then on, not work already done. They are the easiest way to give a whole team the same house style without anyone having to remember to ask for it.

Right-click a Sidekick#

Right-click a row in the Sidekicks list for its options. Depending on the Sidekick and your permissions, you see:

• Recommend for this thread, to recommend a Sidekick that is loaded here but not yet recommended;
• Remove thread recommendation, to take a recommendation away (this also unloads it from the current Breakout);
• Remove from this breakout, to unload a Sidekick Rally loaded here.

The menu may show Loading Sidekick options… for a moment first. A Sidekick the Thread owns cannot be removed this way, since it belongs to the room; pause or archive it from its own page instead (see The Sidekicks window).

Personal Sidekicks in a shared room#

An Only you Sidekick is only ever offered where everyone in the conversation is you. In a Thread with teammates, Rally will not load your personal Sidekicks, and they do not appear as options. If a Sidekick should help the whole team, make it an Organization Sidekick.

Where to go next#

The next chapter, Rally outside the app, takes Rally out of the window altogether, into Slack, email and your phone. Those happen to be good places for a Sidekick to send its work, too.