Tools and delegation

A Sidekick is only as useful as what it can reach. This page covers the tools a Sidekick works with, the custom tools it can be given of its own, and the Delegation allowed list that decides whose access it uses in your other tools.

The tools a Sidekick uses#

A Sidekick's run has the same kinds of tools Rally has in a Canvas: the web, its private computer, image and voice making, and the tools your Organization and its people have connected, such as Gmail, Slack, Linear or GitHub (see How Rally works and Connecting your other tools). The details column lists the tools the Sidekick uses.

A Sidekick works without stopping to ask permission for each step. Like Rally in a Canvas, it never shows "are you sure?" before it sends a message or files an issue. That is why the instructions, and the Delegation allowed list below, matter.

Custom tools#

Some jobs are the same handful of steps every time: fetch these rows, add up that column, compare with last week, flag anything over ten per cent. Rather than working the steps out afresh on every run, a Sidekick can be given a custom tool that does them.

You do not write the tool. Describe the method to the drafting assistant in an Edit Sidekick message ("every run, total the refunds per region and compare with last week"), and it can write a small program, test it against your real data in the setup conversation, and save it as a named tool with the Sidekick. Every run after that has the tool and uses it like any other. The custom tool shows in the Sidekick's details column.

A custom tool can only call the tools the run already has, with the same access checks. It has no internet of its own and no passwords, so it cannot reach anything the Sidekick could not reach without it. Changing or removing a custom tool is another request to the drafting assistant, and saves a new version of the Sidekick.

Delegation allowed#

When a run reads your calendar or posts in Slack, it has to do so as somebody. The details column has a Delegation allowed section: the people the Sidekick may act as, "using their current access to carry out its work". Each person on the list shows whether they are Available or Not allowed.

• The creator is on the list from the start, marked Creator.
• Anyone else adds or removes themselves. Click Allow this Sidekick to act as me to join, and Stop allowing this Sidekick to act as me to leave. You can also ask Rally to do it for you.
• Nobody can add you but you. Being shared on a Sidekick, or talking in its conversation, does not add you to the list.

"Current access" means what the person can reach right now. If someone loses access to a Google Drive folder, the Sidekick loses it through them at the same moment. If they leave the Organization, they show as unavailable.

If nobody is on the list, it says No one currently allows this Sidekick to act as them, and the Sidekick can only use tools that need nobody's access.

Whose access a run uses#

For a request from someone not on the list, a step that would need another person's access is refused, and the run says why rather than quietly using someone else's account. So "what is on Priya's calendar on Friday?" asked by Theo gets an answer only if Theo could look at Priya's calendar himself.

When several people on the list could do a step, the run picks one who has the access, and if that person turns out not to, it tries the next. The run's receipts record who it actually acted as for each step, so you can check later whose account sent that email.

Next: Where a Sidekick's results go.