Grok Bot OS
Grok Bot is xAI's agent for knowledge work: it gets its own computer in the cloud, and it can reach your machine too.Point it at your AI OS, the folder of markdown files holding your business and your voice, and it starts from what you already know.
What is Grok Bot?
Grok Bot is an agent for the work that is not code. xAI's own launch demos are sales outbound, invoice processing and CRM tidying, which tells you the audience better than any feature list.
You create a Bot, hand it a job, and it works through it on a computer of its own. That computer is real: a persistent cloud machine with a browser, a filesystem and a terminal, and it stays yours between sessions.
It is a desktop app first. macOS, Windows and Linux, plus iOS and Android. There is no browser version, which catches people out.
One thing worth setting straight early: Grok Build is the coding agent. Terminal, open source, made for a repo. If you came looking for that, it is a different install and a different page.
Pro tip. Search results for the 2 products are badly tangled. If a video promises Grok Bot and opens in a terminal, you are watching Grok Build.
Where the work actually runs
2 places, and the split is the thing to get right.
Its own computer is a cloud machine, 1 per user, always on. This is where most work happens, and it is why a job survives you closing your laptop.
Your machine is the second track. Because Grok Bot is a desktop app, a Bot can run commands, read files, and move files between the cloud computer and your own. In xAI's words: "Bots can act on a member's own machine through the desktop app."
So the honest answer to "can it touch my files" is yes, once you allow it, and no by default.
Turning on local access
It ships off, and that is the right default.
The control is under Settings, General, Agent, Execution on Local Computer. 3 values: ask every time, always allow, or never. Ask every time is what you start with, and the approval card shows you the exact command before it runs.
xAI's own recommendation is to leave it on Never unless a Bot has a specific reason to work on your files. That is unusually direct advice from a vendor and it is worth taking.
The setting belongs to the installation, not your account. Turn it on at your desk and your laptop still has it off.
Watch out. Every Bot on your account shares 1 computer. Files, cookies and logins are common to all of them, and deleting a Bot does not remove them.
Before you make a second Bot
The natural instinct is 1 Bot per job, with the risky one kept away from anything sensitive. That is not what a second Bot gives you.
They share the same computer. The same files, the same browser cookies, the same logins, the same command line credentials. xAI's docs say it 3 separate times in different places: do not use separate Bots as a security boundary.
Deleting a Bot does not clear any of it either. The files and sessions stay on that computer.
So split Bots by job, because that is genuinely useful. Just do not split them for safety, because that part does not work.
Blocking a plugin does not block the service
This one is easy to get wrong because the setting sounds like it does more than it does.
Turn off a plugin and the Bot loses that tool. It does not lose the website. It opens a browser and goes there instead, which is exactly what a capable agent would do.
Closing that path needs Network Controls, and those are Enterprise only. A self serve team account allows all outbound traffic by default.
Worth knowing too: admins can allow or block a connector, but they cannot push one out to everybody. Each person still adds their own.
Connecting it to your AI OS
Grok Bot reaches your AI OS through a connector, and the steps are on the Grok Bot connect page.
There is a wrinkle specific to this one. A custom MCP server has to be reachable from the public internet: localhost and private network addresses are rejected outright, so a local server needs a tunnel in front of it. That is the opposite of Grok Build, where a local server is the normal path.
The simpler route for most people is the hosted server, which needs no tunnel at all.
Either way the folder itself stays yours. Written once, read by whichever agent you point at it.
Best practices
Work down this list once and you are done.
- Check you want Grok Bot and not Grok Build, which is the coding one
- Install the desktop app, because there is no browser version
- Leave Execution on Local Computer on ask every time until you have a reason
- Split Bots by job, never for safety, because they share 1 computer
- Connect the hosted AI OS server unless you are ready to tunnel a local one
- Turn local access on per machine, since the setting does not follow your account
Grok Bot FAQs
Have questions about running an AI OS in Grok Bot? Find answers to the most common ones below.
Grok Bot is xAI's agent for knowledge work: research, admin, outreach, invoices, the jobs that are not code.
Each Bot works on a persistent cloud computer with a browser, a filesystem and a terminal, so a task keeps running after you close your laptop.
No, and this is the most common mix-up there is. Grok Bot is the knowledge-work agent. **Grok Build** is xAI's coding agent: a terminal tool, open source, built to work in a repository.
Half the videos about one are titled after the other, so check what is on screen. A terminal means you are looking at Grok Build.
Yes, through the desktop app, and it is off until you turn it on. xAI's wording is that Bots can run commands, read files, and move files between the cloud computer and your local machine.
The control is Settings, General, Agent, Execution on Local Computer, and it defaults to asking before every command.
Not for safety, no. Every Bot on your account shares 1 computer, so they share files, browser cookies, logins and credentials.
xAI's docs state it plainly: do not use separate Bots as a security boundary. Deleting a Bot does not remove its files from that computer either.
Neither, on most plans. Grok Bot signs in with a **Cursor** account, and it is administered from the Cursor dashboard, following SpaceX's acquisition of Cursor's maker.
So the connector and privacy policy that govern your Bot are Cursor's, which is not obvious from the name on the app.
It launched on the top tiers only and now starts far lower, so anything written in its first weeks is out of date on price.
Check the current plans before budgeting, and note that some plans reach it through a Cursor subscription rather than an xAI one.
Yes. Blocking a plugin removes the tool, not the website. The Bot opens a browser and goes there instead.
Closing that path needs Network Controls, which are Enterprise only. Self-serve team accounts allow all outbound traffic by default.
Not documented, so treat it as unconfirmed rather than assuming it works like a coding agent.
**Grok Build** is the one with a clear answer here: it reads `CLAUDE.md` and the `.claude/` directory with no configuration, so an existing Claude Code repo works in it as is.
Not directly. A custom MCP server has to be reachable from the public internet, and localhost and private addresses are rejected, so a local one needs a tunnel in front of it.
The hosted AI OS server avoids that entirely. This is backwards from Grok Build, where a local server is the normal path.