Memory and coming back later

Inside one Channel, Rally already remembers the conversation. This page is about the things that last longer than that: facts Rally keeps from one conversation to the next, lists it keeps up to date between runs, and reminders it sets itself to come back and finish a job.

Memory#

Without memory, you would tell Rally in every new Channel that your financial year starts in April, that you like summaries as bullet points, and that "the board" means four specific people. With memory, you tell it once.

What a memory is#

Each memory is one sentence that makes sense on its own, such as "Priya prefers weekly reports as a table, not prose". It can carry a date when it stops being true ("until the end of the quarter") and a note on why Rally saved it.

Rally can search its memories, add new ones, update them and retire ones that are no longer true. You see this in the conversation as rows that say Searching memory, Saving to memory, Updating memory and Clearing a memory entry.

When a run starts from something other than a message from you, such as a Sidekick running on a schedule, Rally also looks up relevant memories by itself before it begins.

Asking Rally to remember or forget#

Tell it in plain words:

• "Remember that our launch date moved to 14 November."
• "Remember that I want drafts, never sent emails, unless I say send."
• "Forget what I said about the Berlin office. We closed it."
• "What do you remember about how I like reports?"

There is no screen for browsing or editing memories. You do all of it by asking Rally.

Where a memory lives#

Every memory belongs to one of four places, and that decides who it helps. Rally picks the narrowest one that fits, and you can tell it which you mean.

There is no memory kept for a whole Space.

Anyone can ask Rally to remember things for themselves. Only owners and administrators can have Rally save a memory for the whole Organization.

A Sidekick's memory is its own. Every run of that Sidekick shares it, and it is kept apart from the memory of the person who made the Sidekick.

Where memory falls short#

• Memory can be out of date. Rally treats a memory as a helpful hint, not a fact, and checks it when getting it right matters. If Rally keeps relying on something that has changed, tell it, and it updates or retires the memory.
• Retiring is permanent. A retired memory cannot be brought back. If you change your mind, ask Rally to remember it again.
• Helpers have no memory. The helper agents described in Helpers, other conversations and receipts cannot read or save memories.
• Memory is not a store for your other tools' data. Rally will not copy your Linear issues or Drive files into memory. It looks them up in the app instead, where they are always current.

Running lists: durable tables#

Some jobs need more than a sentence. A Sidekick that checks for new support tickets every hour needs to know which tickets it has already seen. A watchlist of competitors needs one row per company. For these, Rally keeps durable tables: proper tables with columns, which last between runs and can grow large.

You will see rows such as Creating a durable table, Querying a durable table and Adding durable table rows. Rally reads only the rows it needs, so a long list does not slow it down.

Mostly you will meet these inside Sidekicks, where Rally sets them up for you when a Sidekick has to keep track of what it has handled. You can also ask for one directly: "Keep a list of every customer who mentions pricing in a call, and add to it each week."

Like memory, there is no screen for viewing these tables. Ask Rally what is in one and it tells you. Rally does not keep secrets or whole copies of the original messages in them, only what it needs to keep track.

Sidekicks themselves are covered in Where a Sidekick's results go.

Coming back later: scheduled wake-ups#

Some jobs cannot be finished now. The deploy has not finished. The client has not replied. The recap should go out on Friday, and it is Tuesday. For these, Rally can set itself a reminder and pick the work back up later, in the same Channel.

Ask in plain words:

• "Come back in two hours and check whether the deploy finished."
• "On Friday at 5pm, send the team the weekly recap."
• "Check again in 30 minutes. If the build is still red, tell me what broke."

Rally replies with when it will wake up. The row says Scheduling a wake-up. You can ask what is waiting ("What wake-ups have you got scheduled?") and cancel one ("Cancel the Friday recap"), and you will see Checking scheduled wake-ups and Cancelling a wake-up.

When the time comes, Rally starts a new run in the Channel with the note it wrote itself. It first checks whether the conversation has already settled the matter. If someone already sent the recap, it says so briefly rather than sending it twice.

The rules for wake-ups#

• Times are in your time zone, or the Organization's if Rally does not know yours. Say "London time" or "Pacific" if you mean somewhere else.
• At least a minute, at most a year. A wake-up has to be at least 60 seconds away and no more than a year away.
• Up to 20 waiting per Channel. If a Channel already has 20, one has to be cancelled before Rally can add another.
• Rally does not put things off. It will not schedule a wake-up for work it can finish now. Patience is a virtue, but not one Rally needs at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday.
• The note has to stand alone. Rally writes the instructions for its future self in full (what to do, where, and what done looks like), so the later run is not relying on a detail buried in the conversation.

Next: Helpers, other conversations and receipts.