Grok Bot 101: stand up a Bot and run real workflows
Grok Bot is an agent with a computer. Matt Palmer's official Grok Bot 101 walkthrough is the beginner spine: stand one up in about 10-15 minutes, then reuse it after you close the laptop.
Anatomy: Name, Title, Description
Behind the scenes a Bot is three fields you can set in chat or in Settings:
- Name - what you call it
- Title - the short job line
- Description - the workflow, written the way you would do the work
Be specific. Describe the steps exactly, or record a demo on your screen. Assume the Bot can do hard computer work that chat-only tools usually cannot.
Palmer's DevRel example is Tech Demos: each weekday it scouts X bookmarks, drafts a prototype prompt in his style, waits for approve or deny, then kicks a Cursor cloud agent and can open a PR with screenshots or a clip when the build finishes.
Three ways to talk to a Bot
- Chat - send a message.
- Routines and triggers - schedules, or events from apps (Slack threads, GitHub PRs).
- Other bots - bots can message and trigger each other.
Shared cloud computer and permissions
The computer lives in the cloud: desktop, filesystem, terminal, apps. You can open the Bot's window and use that machine like a remote desktop. The same computer follows you on phone and desktop.
Logins are account-wide. If you sign into a site with one Bot, every other Bot on your account can reach that site too. Treat anything on the computer as available to the whole roster.
Permissions keep bots in check: natural-language rules in Settings -> General -> Agent, a separate review agent that can allow, block, or escalate to you, plus allow/block lists. You are still trusting the model to follow what you wrote. Work runs in an isolated environment. Soft-check those rules before you leave buy/send powers on.
When a flow needs you, the Bot can hand the desktop back for CAPTCHA or 2FA, or send a secure form for a password or API key.
Multi-bot specialist chains
Treat bots as specialists. Drop several into a group chat. A weekday routine can route a request through different bots until the job is done. One Marketplace watcher can ask a Chief of Staff bot for a judgment call when it needs a yes/no.
Four workflows from the guide
Personal CRM from public X. Turn people you already follow into a private Notion board from public profile information only - images, descriptions, and a link back. Use it when you travel to reconnect.
Fitness as chat (Arnold). Move a vibe-coded training app into a Bot: MCP servers, skills, and plugins for programming. Updates become chat instead of app rebuilds.
Outer-loop Bot -> Cursor cloud agent (code). The Bot gathers context from Slack, Notion, GitHub, and docs, then hands a clean prompt to a Cursor cloud agent for the inner loop that actually builds software. Grok Bot drafts the prompt and context. The Cursor cloud agent does the inner-loop code. That split keeps dirty research context out of the coding harness.
Company search across Slack, Notion, GitHub. Ask how a product or process works; the Bot reads the codebase, Slack discussion, and design docs, then answers so you cut Slack fatigue.
Soft-check before you leave it running
- Confirm Name / Title / Description match the job you want.
- Soft-check shared-computer logins and your allow/block rules.
- For code work, keep the outer-loop Bot / Cursor cloud agent split clear: Bot prompts; cloud agent builds.
- Open the live guide if a label moved: https://x.ai/bot/guides/grok-bot-101.
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