One narrow rule makes every external email stop for your OK.
Open Settings → General, and under Bot find Custom Rules below the Auto-review switch. Under When Grok Bot wants to: type “send any external email”, choose Ask first and press Add Rule (docs).
An Ask first rule always stops matching actions, and it wins when an Allow rule also matches. Keep each rule short and narrow; the docs advise against broad rules such as “allow everything in the browser”. Newer app versions list the same rules in a Permissions section (changelog, v0.77.0).
Review, correct or remove a memory with one chat message.
Personal Bots have no memory screen, so ask in chat: “What do you remember about me?” (docs). To fix something, state the correct version. To remove it, say “Forget that …” with the fact.
A few facts, such as your name and time zone, are shared by all your Bots. To remove a shared fact completely, ask the Bot that saved it.
Set local execution to Never allow so Bots stay on their cloud computer.
Open Settings → Computer → Your computer and set Execution on this computer to Never allow. Each listed desktop has its own setting (docs).
The default is Ask every time, and the docs recommend Never allow unless a Bot has a specific reason to work on your local files. This does not stop the Bot from using its own cloud computer, so normal work carries on.
Enter API keys and passwords in the masked card so the model never sees them.
When a Bot asks for an API key, wait for the secure secret card, type the value into the masked field and choose Save securely (Vault docs). The value is kept out of the chat and not shown to the Bot.
Do not paste a password, one-time code or key into an ordinary message (approvals docs). For steps a form can’t handle, such as a passkey or CAPTCHA, choose Take over, finish the step yourself, then choose I’m done.
Review recipients and text before anything leaves your account.
Bots draft outgoing email and Slack messages for your review by default; the card shows Needs approval. Check the recipients and body, then choose Send or Discard (docs).
If you once chose Disable drafts for Bot, choose Needs approval on one of that Bot’s draft cards, or ask the Bot, to get drafts back. The setting is per Bot.
Run one test, then check inputs, output and the approval stop.
After you create or edit a routine, open it on desktop and choose Test. The result shows up in the Bot’s chat (docs). If there is no Test button, ask the Bot to do the same work once in chat with a safe input.
A test run does real work, so keep write actions behind approval. Then check that it used current inputs, stopped at the intended approval point and reported failures clearly.
If you run Grok through Hermes Agent, /goal keeps it working until a judge says done.
If you run Grok through Hermes Agent, the agent from Nous Research (not xAI’s Grok Bot), type /goal <what done looks like> in chat. After every turn a judge model checks the goal, and Hermes continues on its own, with a 20-turn budget (docs).
/goal pause stops the loop and keeps the goal, /goal clear drops it, and /subgoal <text> adds a criterion mid-loop. Name what done means; a vague goal gets vague judging.
If you run Grok through Hermes Agent, hermes -c resumes this terminal's own session.
If you run Grok through Hermes Agent, the agent from Nous Research (not xAI’s Grok Bot), type hermes -c to continue. It is terminal-aware: each terminal or tmux pane resumes its own last session, not the globally newest one (docs).
If you gave a session a title, hermes -c "my project" resumes it by name.
Linking lets a shared Bot act for you in Slack threads.
If a shared Bot in Slack asks you to link a Cursor account, open Settings → General → Shared Bots and link your Slack account with the Cursor account on the Bot’s team (docs).
Approvals then work in the thread: the card offers Allow once, Deny and View details, and only the person who asked can answer it (approvals docs).
Tell a new Bot its role, sources and approval boundaries, and ask it to remember them.
Create a Bot with New Bot (or Cmd/Ctrl+N), name it, then use your first message to give it its job, its sources and its approval boundaries, and ask it to remember them (docs).
Write the role in operational terms, for example: “Own the weekly account review. Never contact a customer or change an account without approval.” The docs suggest a separate Bot whenever the goal, tools or approval boundary differ; a vague “General Helper” gives the Bot nothing to reuse.
Limit what Grok Bot can bill after your weekly usage runs out.
On The X Subscription, open grok.com/dashboard/billing and either leave Auto Top-up off or set a monthly limit under Additional usage credits. On a legacy Cursor plan, open Settings → Usage & Billing → On-demand monthly limit in Grok Bot (docs).
The cap does not stop a Bot mid-run, so a running task can go slightly past it.