> Rally Help Center. Index of every page: https://rallywith.ai/help/llms.txt
> This chapter's pages: https://rallywith.ai/help/spaces-and-breakouts/llms.txt

# Breakouts

> Branch a private side conversation off a Thread to explore an idea without derailing the main one.

A **Breakout** is a side conversation inside a Thread. You start one when an
idea deserves some room but would hijack the main conversation if you had it
there: a rough first draft, a "what if we tried it the other way", a question you
want to think through before you ask everyone.

Every Thread has its main conversation and as many Breakouts as you like. A
Breakout opens beside its Thread, so you can keep an eye on both.

## Start a Breakout

A Breakout always starts from a message, and branches from that exact point in
the conversation.

- **From Rally's latest reply.** Under it is a line, **↳ Start a breakout from
  this message**. Click it.
- **From any other message.** Hover over a finished message and click **↳ New
  breakout** among the buttons underneath it.

A launch screen headed **New breakout from this message** opens to the right of
the Thread, with a reminder: **Private to you until you add somebody. Rally
brings the conversation so far with it.**

1. In the box labelled **What should this breakout work on?**, write your first
   message, the same way you would in any Thread.
2. Press <kbd>Return</kbd> to create the Breakout. <kbd>⇧ Shift</kbd>
   <kbd>Return</kbd> starts a new line instead.

Nothing exists until you send that first message, so changing your mind costs
nothing. Click the **X** (**Cancel new breakout**) to back out, and Rally keeps
what you had typed.

Rally gives the new Breakout a title based on what you asked for. You can rename
it whenever you like, as described below.

Starting a Breakout needs a live connection. While Rally is still connecting,
the launch screen says **Starting a breakout is available once Rally connects**.
If it fails, you will see **The breakout couldn't be created. Try again.**

## A Breakout beside its Thread

An open Breakout sits in a pane to the right of its Thread, so the main
conversation stays in view while you work on the side. Everything moves one step
left to make room: the Thread takes the left pane, and the Channel it was beside
becomes a small breadcrumb in the header above the Thread. Click the breadcrumb
to go back to the Channel and the Thread side by side. Drag the line between the
two panes to share the room differently.

- **Where it started.** The top of a Breakout shows the message it started from
  as a card, with up to three earlier messages above it, each a little fainter
  the further back it goes.
- **Chips under messages.** In the Thread, every message that started a
  Breakout gets a small chip underneath with the Breakout's name. It says how
  many things are new (**2 new**), and **Open** when that Breakout is the one
  beside you. Click a chip to open its Breakout.
- **The tick bar.** Down the edge of the Thread's conversation runs a column
  of small ticks, one per Breakout, in the order they started. A longer, red
  tick has news; the longest is the one that is open. Hover over a tick for the
  Breakout's name, and click it to open the Breakout and scroll the Thread to
  where it started.
- **The list.** Click the Thread's name in its title pill and choose
  **Breakouts** for every Breakout in the Thread, newest activity first, with a
  dot beside any with news. Past six, the rest wait behind **Show _N_ more**, and
a **Find a breakout** box appears.
- **Show in thread.** In a Breakout's menu, **Show in thread** scrolls the
  Thread to the message the Breakout started from.

Click the **X** (**Close breakout**) at the top right of the Breakout to close
it and have the Thread to yourself again.

A Breakout's title pill shows how many replies it has, such as **12 replies**,
once all of it has loaded.

If the window is too narrow for two conversations side by side, the Breakout
takes the whole window instead. Its close button takes you back to the Thread.

Opening a file or the built-in browser from the Breakout moves everything left
once more: the Breakout takes the left pane, the file opens on the right, and the
Thread joins the Channel in the breadcrumbs. Click the Thread's name in the
breadcrumbs to close the file and go back to the Thread and the Breakout side by
side. Rally never shows more than two panes at once.

## What Rally knows in a Breakout

Rally does not start a Breakout from a blank page. It begins with a summary
of the main conversation up to the point you branched from, so it already knows
what the Thread is about and what has been decided.

From there:

- Rally in the Breakout can read the main conversation when it needs more
  detail than the summary holds.
- It cannot post in the main conversation. What happens in the Breakout stays
  in the Breakout until you choose to share it.
- The summary leaves things out. If one exact detail matters, say it again in
  the Breakout.

You cannot choose how much Rally brings with it. It always brings the summary.

## Who can see a Breakout

A new Breakout is private to you. Nobody else sees it, not even the Thread's
other participants, until you invite them. It is the one
room in Rally with a door that starts closed.

To bring someone in, click the Breakout's name in its title pill, choose **Add
people** and add them, as described in
[People in the room](https://rallywith.ai/help/working-in-a-channel/people-in-the-room.md). The
**Add a participant** window reminds you of an important rule: **Added participants can read this
breakout and its shared context. This does not grant access to the parent
thread.**

So adding a colleague to a Breakout lets them read that Breakout, including what
Rally brought into it from the main conversation, but it does not give them the rest of the
Thread. That makes Breakouts a good way to involve someone in one part of the
work without opening up everything.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The summary Rally brings into a Breakout is part of what an added person can
> read. Anything said in the main conversation before you branched may reach them that way, in
> summary form. If the earlier conversation holds something they should not see,
> start a fresh Thread with them instead.

To share a Breakout with someone outside your Organization, see
[Sharing with people outside your Organization](https://rallywith.ai/help/spaces-and-breakouts/sharing-with-guests.md).

## The Breakout menu

Click the Breakout's name in its title pill for its menu. At the top it names the
Thread it belongs to, with **Show in thread**, and the message it started
from. Then come the same buttons a Thread has:

- **Add people** brings someone in.
- **Rename** gives it a new name.
- **Copy link** copies a link that opens this Breakout. See
  [Search and links](https://rallywith.ai/help/spaces-and-breakouts/search-and-links.md).
- **More** holds **Icon and color** and **Archive breakout**, which retires it.

Under the buttons are **People** and **Sidekicks**.

The Thread's own menu, from its title pill, has the same buttons for the whole
Thread. Its **More** has **Make public to organization**, greyed out if the
Thread is already open to everyone. That item makes the whole Thread visible to
your Organization; [Who can see what](https://rallywith.ai/help/spaces-and-breakouts/who-can-see-what.md) explains what that
means and how to undo it.

### Archiving a Breakout

**Archive breakout** asks you to confirm, then the Breakout leaves the Thread
for everyone in it and stops accepting messages. Rally keeps the conversation,
but there is no way in the app to restore it. Archive a Breakout when you are
sure you are finished with it.

## Bring a result back to the Thread

Because a Breakout is private, the documents and files Rally makes there do not
show up in the Thread. When one is worth sharing, attach it:

1. In the Breakout, find the artifact card in the conversation.
2. Right-click it and choose **Attach to thread**.

The artifact now also appears in the Thread, and everyone who can read the main
conversation can open it. The Breakout keeps its own copy of the link, so people
in either place can open it. The conversation that produced it stays private,
including the twenty minutes spent arguing about the font.

A few details:

- Only artifacts Rally made in the Breakout can be attached this way.
- If the Thread already has that artifact, the item is greyed out.
- Rally attaches one thing at a time.

Artifacts themselves are covered in [Artifacts](https://rallywith.ai/help/things-rally-makes/artifacts.md).

Next: [Who can see what](https://rallywith.ai/help/spaces-and-breakouts/who-can-see-what.md), the rules behind all of these
doors.