Chats and workspaces in the sidebar

Everything in DataMind Oda is reached from the sidebar: your chats, your workspaces, the panels that go with them and Settings. This page covers the column itself and the lists it holds; the conversation is covered in Chat with Oda.

What the sidebar contains

From top to bottom:

• The DataMind Oda mark and name, which in the desktop app also form part of the window's title bar. A local build shows DataMind Local Build.
• New chat: starts a chat in the workspace you are in. Its shortcut is Ctrl N (⌘ N on macOS). See Start a new chat.
• Search: opens the search field in place. Its shortcut is Ctrl K (⌘ K on macOS). See Search your chats.
• Feature panels, such as Plugins, each opening a page in the main area.
• Sections of other features, such as Scheduled or Shared with me.
• The lists of chats, described below.
• The footer: your account, any actions that sit beside it, and Settings.

The chat lists

• By default chats are grouped by workspace: each workspace is a folder row with its chats listed under it.
• A chat that belongs to no workspace appears under Ungrouped; the group opens by itself when a chat without a workspace is active.
• Chats you pinned lead the column in Pinned, above every workspace, wherever they belong. A pinned chat appears only there, never also under its workspace.
• Helper chats Oda starts to do part of a task get no rows of their own; their work shows in the chat that started them.
• Chats that belong to another feature, such as a scheduled task's runs, stay out of the lists; search still finds them.

Five at a time

• Each workspace lists five chats at a time. Chats that are running stay visible beyond those five, and so does the blank New Session of the chat you are in.
• Choose Show N more to reveal five more. When the rest fit in one batch the control shows them all and becomes Show less.
• Pinned keeps its own five: five idle pinned chats, then Show N more; running pinned chats stay visible.
• The Pinned header shows how many chats it holds; a folder row shows its chat count while it is closed.
• Opening a workspace again later restores the shorter list.

Grouping, order and archived chats

The View options button sits in the Workspaces header, beside Add workspace (adding, renaming and removing workspaces).

• Group by: Workspace (the default) lists workspaces side by side; Folder tree nests a workspace inside the workspace whose folder contains it; One list shows every chat in a single flat list, headed Chats.
• Order by: Last updated (the default) keeps the chat you messaged most recently at the top of its group. Manual freezes the order you see and lets you drag chats to rearrange them; dragging a chat switches to Manual on its own. Switching back to Last updated discards the manual order, and choosing Manual again freezes the then-current order.
• Filter sessions: Show archived brings archived chats back into their places; Archived only shows archived chats alone and limits search to them. Choosing the selected filter again returns to the default, with archived chats hidden.
• Oda remembers your grouping, order and filter.

Archived chats stay in their place, greyed out and marked Archived. They cannot be opened until you unarchive them (Pin, rename, fork or archive a chat). A chat is never deleted; the archived filters are how you find it again.

Marks on a chat row

• Running: Oda is working in the chat.
• Needs you: the chat waits for you, and Needs you replaces its time. The hover card names what it waits for: Waiting for approval, Plan awaiting review or Waiting for answer.
• A chat that finished while you were elsewhere turns its title bold and shows a dot, and its card reads Completed; opening the chat clears the mark.
• An alarm-clock badge reads Has active scheduled task: a scheduled task runs in this chat.
• Archived: the chat is greyed out with an archive mark.
• Point at a chat for about a second for its card: the full name, when it last changed, its state and a Copy button. A workspace's card shows its folder path and the date you added it.

Collapse the sidebar

1. Choose the collapse control at the top of the column, or press Ctrl B (⌘ B on macOS).
2. On the web, the column shrinks to a strip of icons: New chat, search, panels, the workspace controls and Settings stay at hand. Choose the Oda mark at the top to open it again.

• In the desktop app the sidebar's top row is part of the window's title bar, and you can drag the window by it. On Windows the collapse control, New chat, search and the Oda mark stay in the title bar; on macOS the sidebar hides away completely, and Open sidebar and New chat appear next to the window buttons.
• Every section header folds: use the chevron on Pinned, Workspaces or a section such as Scheduled. Section folds are remembered across restarts; new sections start expanded.
• The column scrolls as one, and section headers stay in place while you scroll. Its scrollbar appears while you point at the column and fades shortly after you leave.
• When Oda runs inside another app, the column draws in a tighter, compact size.

Questions, answered

How do I collapse the sidebar, and how do I bring it back?

Choose the collapse control at the top of the column, or press Ctrl B (⌘ B on macOS). On the web it shrinks to a strip of icons: choose the Oda mark at its top to open it again. In the desktop app the controls stay in the window's title area instead: on Windows choose the same control there, and on macOS use Open sidebar, which appears next to the window buttons together with New chat.

Why does a workspace show only five chats?

To keep the list short, each workspace shows five chats at a time. Chats that are running, and the blank New Session of the chat you are in, stay visible beyond those five; the Pinned section keeps its own five. Choose Show N more to reveal five more, and Show less to fold back.

How do I change how my chats are grouped or sorted?

Open View options in the Workspaces header: Group by chooses Workspace, Folder tree or One list, and Order by chooses Last updated or Manual. Oda remembers the choice.

Why does a chat appear under Ungrouped?

That chat belongs to no workspace. It can be a chat from a workspace you removed: removing a workspace takes off only its entry in Oda's list, and its chats move under Ungrouped (Add, rename or delete a workspace).

Where did my archived chats go?

By default the lists hide archived chats. Bring them back with View options > Show archived, which mixes them into their places, or Archived only, which shows just them; choosing the selected filter again hides them. Unarchiving is covered in Pin, rename, fork or archive a chat.

Why is an archived chat greyed out and will not open?

Archived chats cannot be opened, and Oda answers Archived sessions cannot be opened. Unarchive it to view. Unarchive the chat from its row menu first, then open it.

What do the marks on a chat row mean?

A running chat shows the running mark. A chat waiting for you shows Needs you in place of its time. A chat that finished while you were elsewhere turns bold with a dot, which clears when you open it. An archived chat is greyed out with an archive mark.

What does the alarm-clock badge next to a chat mean?

The chat has an active scheduled task: Oda runs that task in the chat when it is due. See Schedule recurring tasks.

Why can't I drag some chats?

A blank chat cannot be dragged before its first message, and an archived chat keeps its place until you unarchive it. Chats move beside the chats they are grouped with, and dragging switches the list to Manual order.