rallyHelpChapter 7 · Sidekicks / 7.4
The Sidekicks window
Browse every Sidekick you can see, check its runs, run it now, pause it, or archive it.
Sidekicks live in a window of their own, separate from the main Rally window. It holds every Sidekick you are allowed to see, including drafts and paused ones, and it is where you open a Sidekick to check on it or change it.
Opening the window
Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar to open the account menu, then Sidekicks. The window title is Rally Sidekicks. Opening it again brings the same window to the front rather than starting a second one.
A Channel's own Sidekicks are also listed in the Channel itself: click its name in the title pill and choose Sidekicks. Click one there to open it in the Sidekicks window. See Sidekicks in a Channel.
The library
The window opens on the library, headed Sidekicks, with the tagline "A little help that knows how you work."
- New Sidekick, at the top right, starts a new one (see Make a Sidekick).
- Search Sidekicks finds Sidekicks by name or description.
- The filter buttons Everyone, Only you, Organization and Channels narrow the list by who a Sidekick belongs to.
Below them is the list, titled Your Sidekicks (or Search results while you search) with a count. Each row shows the Sidekick's hexagon, its name, its description, and a short line saying what state it is in and who it belongs to:
| First word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Not yet published. Still being described. |
| Paused | Switched off for now. |
| Available in conversations | Instructions only. Rally can load it in conversations. |
| Delegated work | Has triggers and runs by itself. |
The second part is the scope: Only you, Organization or Channel. Click a row to open the Sidekick.
If you have none yet, the list says No Sidekicks yet. If a search finds nothing, it says No matching Sidekicks; try a different word or filter. Press Esc to close the window. If the search box has text in it, the first Esc clears the search and the second closes the window.
A Sidekick's page
Opening a Sidekick shows its conversation with the drafting assistant beside a details panel. A < Sidekicks link at the top takes you back to the library. When the window is narrow, Rally shows one side at a time; use the Conversation and Details switch at the top to flip between them.
The details panel shows:
- the hexagon (click it to change the icon and colour);
- the name;
- a lifecycle badge: Draft, Active or Paused;
- the scope badge: Only you, Organization or Channel;
- the description;
- the controls: Pause or Resume, and a … button with the rest;
- When to expect it: the triggers in plain words, and Next with how long until the next scheduled run, when there is one;
- Make it work for you, a reminder that you change the Sidekick by asking in the conversation;
- Email this Sidekick, if it has an email address (see Triggers and schedules).
If an action fails, the error appears under the description.
Run now
To start a run straight away, outside the schedule, click … → Run now. It reads Starting… while Rally sets the run going. There is no "are you sure?"; the run starts. This is the quickest way to test a Sidekick you have made, rather than waiting until Monday to find out it misunderstood you.
Run now works only when the Sidekick is Active and has at least one trigger. It is greyed out on drafts and paused Sidekicks, and missing altogether on instructions-only Sidekicks, which have nothing to run.
Run history
Click … → Run history to see the Sidekick's runs, newest first. The dialog is subtitled "Technical details for troubleshooting this Sidekick."
Each row shows:
- a status dot, coloured the same way as elsewhere in Rally (see Status dots);
- how the run started: Manual, Scheduled, Event or Email;
- a short summary of the result, or "Running" with how long it has been going, or when it finished;
- a status badge, such as Running, Needs input, Latest run completed or Latest run stopped.
If there have been no runs yet the dialog says No runs yet. If it says Could not load runs, close it and try again in a moment.
Run history is a summary. Each run is its own conversation, visible only to the person the Sidekick runs as, and the history shows how each run went rather than what was said.
A run can wake up again. If someone replies to something a run posted, such as a Slack thread it started, the same run carries on, and it keeps one row in the history.
Runs stay out of your sidebar: no row, no unread dot, no notification of their own. You see a run's work where it posts it (see Where a Sidekick's results go).
The Run history item appears only once the Sidekick has triggers or has already run.
Pause and Resume
Click Pause on an active Sidekick to switch it off without losing it. The badge changes to Paused straight away. Pausing:
- stops any run that is in progress;
- cancels its schedules;
- stops it listening for events;
- makes it refuse email.
Click Resume to switch it back on. A resumed Sidekick picks up from now. It does not catch up on the runs it would have made while paused, and it ignores events that happened in the meantime. A Sidekick on holiday does not come back with a fortnight of postcards.
A paused Sidekick shows Paused in the library and in a Channel's Sidekicks list until you resume it.
If you archive the Channel or Breakout that owns a Channel Sidekick, Rally pauses that Sidekick for you, and it cannot be resumed while the room stays archived. Unarchiving the room resumes it again, but only if the archive was what paused it. A Sidekick a person paused stays paused.
Archive
When you no longer need a Sidekick, click … → Archive Sidekick (or Archive draft for a draft). Rally asks you to confirm: the Sidekick will be removed from your Sidekicks and its schedules will stop, and its conversation and run history will stay stored but can no longer be viewed. Click Archive to go ahead, or Cancel. You land back in the library.
Warning
There is no way to unarchive a Sidekick. Once archived, it is gone from the library for good, there is no list of archived Sidekicks, and you cannot open its conversation or run history again. If you might want it back, Pause it instead.
Archiving also stops any runs in progress. If the Sidekick had an email address, that address is retired and will not be given to anyone else.
Copy a link to a Sidekick
To send a teammate straight to a Sidekick, click … → Copy sidekick link and paste the link wherever you like. Opening it in the Rally app opens that Sidekick's page.
The link only works for people in the same Organization who are allowed to see the Sidekick. A teammate cannot open your Only you Sidekick from a link. If copying fails, Rally says The Sidekick link could not be copied.
Pausing, archiving and changing need permission
Pause, Resume, Archive and changes to the icon or colour need permission to manage the Sidekick. Who has it depends on the scope, as set out in What a Sidekick is.
On iPhone
The iPhone app has a Sidekicks tab that lists the Sidekicks you can see, each with a status word and its description. Tap one to open its conversation. To make, pause or archive a Sidekick, use the desktop app or the browser. See Rally on your iPhone.