A tour of the window

Rally's window has one sidebar on the left and your conversation on the right. The sidebar is how you get anywhere: a row of buttons at the top, a row of Space pills under them, and then the list of Channels. Whatever you open 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 buttons at the top#

Four round buttons sit at the top of the sidebar, beside the window's own controls:

• 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 from ChatGPT or Claude brings in a conversation you had elsewhere. See Bring in a conversation from Claude or ChatGPT.
• New channel starts a Channel. You will use it on the next page.

The Space pills#

Under the buttons is a row of pills, one per Space. A Space is a group of Channels, and a new Organization has just one, General, so this row looks a little lonely at first.

• All shows every Channel you can see. Click a Space's pill and the list below shows only the Channels in that Space. A pill only filters the list; it does not take you anywhere.
• General has no pill of its own. It is where a Channel lives when nobody put it anywhere more specific, and All already shows it.
• To open a Space's own page, right-click its pill and choose Open space.
• The round button at the start of the row, a folder with a plus, is New space. Right-click it for Restore archived space, when you have archived one.
• Drag a pill sideways to reorder the row. The order is yours alone: it follows you to your other devices, and nobody else's changes. From the keyboard, select a pill and hold ⌥ Option while pressing ← or →.

When there are more pills than fit, scroll the row sideways. Rally remembers which pill you picked on this Mac. Spaces have a full page of their own in Spaces.

The Channel list#

Below the pills are your Channels.

• Pinned comes first. It is there even before you pin anything, and then it reads Move a channel here to pin it. Drag a Channel into it to pin it. Every other Channel follows, alphabetically, under Channels. Arranging your Channels covers pinning, moving and archiving.
• Each row shows the Channel's icon, its name and when it last had activity. Underneath, it names the Spaces the Channel is in (General is left out, so a Channel only in General has a one-line row).
• A Channel with messages you have not read has its name in bold, and a small dot at the start of the row says what it wants from you. Status dots explains every dot.
• A small clock under the time means Rally has a reminder or follow-up scheduled there. Hover over the clock to see when.
• Click a row to open that Channel. Hover for a moment to see its full name in a card.
• Right-click a row for a menu of things you can do to it. Right-click an empty part of the list to start a new Channel.

If you have no Channels yet, the list says No channels yet. That changes on the next page.

The sidebar does not fold away. To give the conversation more room, drag the sidebar's right edge to make it narrower; drag it back to widen it again.

The account menu#

At the bottom of the sidebar is your avatar and name. Click it to open 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.

The conversation#

The rest of the window 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 Channel's title pill, with its icon and name. Click the name to open the Channel'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.

The right-hand side#

Some things open on the right-hand side of the window, so you can read them beside the conversation.

• A Breakout: open one and it sits to the right of its Channel, so you see both at once. See Breakouts.
• A single file or document: files usually open first in a large preview over the window. Click Open in a righthand sidebar to dock it here instead, beside the chat. Opening, docking and downloading has the details.
• The Browser: links can open in a built-in browser right here. See Research and the built-in browser.

Drag the panel's left edge to make it wider or narrower. There is one place on the right: opening a file or the browser from the Channel hides an open Breakout until you close it again.

Rally remembers where you were#

When you quit Rally and open it again, it returns to the Space, Channel or Breakout you were last looking at, with your sidebar width and your place in the conversation as you left them.

This memory belongs to this Mac; your other devices keep their own. If the Channel you were in has since been archived, or you no longer have access to it, Rally opens your most recent Channel instead.

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