Breakouts & SideChat

Focus is what makes findings clean. When a conversation sprouts a tangent that is worth having but does not belong in the main thread, move it into a SideChat.

SideChat

A SideChat is a child chat linked to its parent. It is the branching step of the funnel: the tangent gets its own room to run to a conclusion, and the parent chat stays on its subject.

Three ways to start one

Way	Where	What you get
Move to SideChat	A message's actions	The message and its replies move into their own SideChat.
SideChat	The + menu in the message bar	A SideChat with a goal, set up in the Start a SideChat dialog.
Breakout…	The session controls, or /facilitator breakout <name>	One named SideChat off this chat. Facilitators and above only.

Starting a SideChat is open to every Member. A workspace can switch that off for plain Members; Facilitators and above keep it.

A breakout opens one room. It does not move anyone into it, and a breakout cannot be opened from inside a breakout.

Start a SideChat with a goal

Choose SideChat in the + menu. The Start a SideChat dialog asks for:

• Goal: what the SideChat should settle.
• Opening: one of
  • AI summary: an agent drafts an opening from the parent chat, and you review it before anyone is invited,
  • Write it myself,
  • Start clean: no opening.
• Invite (optional): people to bring in.

Press Create draft. The SideChat opens as a draft:

• It shows the Goal and the Opening summary for you to review.
• Redraft with AI asks for a fresh summary. Save draft keeps your edits.
• Start opens it to the people in it.

Who is in it

Everyone who can see the parent chat can already see the SideChat. Press People to see and change who is in it.

• Follows the parent chat's audience is the starting point.
• Adding a person who cannot see the parent chat gives the SideChat its own audience. That needs a Facilitator.
• A person from outside the parent's audience is tagged outside.
• Follow the parent again undoes a custom audience.

When to branch

Branch when:

• A sub-question needs a few people to go deep while the main group moves on.
• A disagreement needs space to resolve without derailing the agenda.
• A subject deserves its own durable record and its own resolution.

A quick aside does not need a branch. A reply thread is enough. Branch when the tangent has become its own conversation.

Closing it and bringing it back

A SideChat runs the full funnel itself: it can reach its own Resolution and hold its own findings.

Inside a SideChat, the header has Back to the parent and Close SideChat. Back to on an open SideChat asks Done with this? with two choices:

• Leave Unresolved: goes back and keeps it running.
• Resolve: writes a summary and posts it back to the parent.

Resolve SideChat ends it. You are first asked Send findings back to the parent, with Send findings or Just resolve.

Send findings posts a "Resolved: …" line in the parent chat and copies the SideChat's findings and decisions into the parent.

Who can close a SideChat that has a goal: the person who started it, or a Facilitator or above.