Grok Bot approvals and Auto-review: what it asks first

A Bot does most of its work without asking. Auto-review checks each action before it runs, and when one needs you the Bot stops and shows a card. Rules in Settings decide where that line sits.

#What a Bot does without asking

Auto-review looks at each action a Bot is about to take, on its computer or in your apps, and does one of three things: lets it run, stops and asks you, or refuses it.

Before you read which is which, make a guess.

Predict

Auto-review is on and you haven't written any rules. You ask a Bot to do these five things. Which one makes it stop and ask you?

• Search the web and read public pages
• Set up a routine that runs every Monday
• Delete two folders of files it made earlier
• Write a file in a temporary folder, then delete it
• Change a protected system folder on its computer

Show the answer

Change a protected system folder on its computer

On an account with no rules of its own, only the last one stops. The Bot searches, browses, sets up routines and deletes its own files without a card. Here it is deleting two folders the moment it's asked.

The command on the system folder stops because it changes a protected part of the computer. Auto-review weighs each action by the tool it uses and the risk it carries, and there's no published list of what it stops. For anything you always want a say in, write a rule.

On an account with no rules of its own, only the last one stops. The Bot searches, browses, sets up routines and deletes its own files without a card. Here it is deleting two folders the moment it's asked.

The command on the system folder stops because it changes a protected part of the computer. Auto-review weighs each action by the tool it uses and the risk it carries, and there's no published list of what it stops. For anything you always want a say in, write a rule.

Two kinds of work reach you another way:

• An email or a Slack message that a Bot writes shows up as a draft, with Send email or Send message beside Discard. The draft goes out when you click send.
• A password, a sign-in code, a CAPTCHA or a payment confirmation is yours to enter. The Bot hands you its screen, as the shared computer shows.

#Answer an approval card

When Auto-review stops an action, the Bot's row in the sidebar turns orange and starts Waiting for you. The card is in that Bot's chat, and the action waits there until you answer.

Walkthrough

Answer an approval card

1. Marker 1Marker 2

   1. 1The heading names the Bot that's asking. The line under it says what the action is and where it would run.
   2. 2Needs approval means nothing has happened yet.

   1Read what the Bot wants to do

   Open the chat of the Bot that's waiting. The card is the last thing in the conversation.

2. Marker 1Marker 2

   1. 1Why it stopped: this command changes a protected system folder.
   2. 2The action itself, word for word. The icon at the end of the line copies it.

   2Click View the full request

   The one-line summary is short on purpose. View the full request opens the reason Auto-review stopped, with the exact action under it. Hide folds it away again.

   If you can't tell what an action would change or who it would reach, ask the Bot to explain it in plain words before you answer.

3. Marker 1Marker 2Marker 3

   1. 1After Deny, the tag reads Denied and the buttons are gone.
   2. 2The card says in words that the Bot won't do it.
   3. 3This Bot tried the command a second time, was blocked again with no new card, and told its owner.

   3Choose Deny, Allow once or Always allow

   Each button leaves the card in a different state.

   • Deny blocks the action.
   • Allow once lets this one action run. The tag reads Allowed once, and the same kind of action asks again next time.
   • Always allow lets it run and stops asking about actions like it. The next step shows what that leaves behind.

4. 

   4See what Always allow adds

   Always allow writes a rule into your settings, in the app's own words, and quotes it on the card. From then on a matching action runs without a card.

   Use Allow once for anything that touches an account, money or something you share with other people. Keep Always allow for small actions you'd never want to be asked about twice.

#Write a rule of your own

A rule moves the line for one kind of action. Ask first makes a Bot stop every time, and Allow automatically lets the action through without a card.

The app keeps one list of rules, in its settings. Adding to it takes a sentence and two clicks.

Walkthrough

Add an Ask first rule

1. Marker 1Marker 2Marker 3

   1. 1The Auto-review switch turns the whole check on or off.
   2. 2Custom Rules holds the rules you write.
   3. 3Your rules sit on top of the built-in checks, which always apply.

   1Open Settings and find the Bot section

   Click your picture at the bottom left of the app and choose Settings. On the General page, scroll down to the section headed Bot.

2. 

   2Describe the action and choose Ask first

   Under When Grok Bot wants to:, type the action in plain words. Open the It should: menu and choose Ask first. Then click Add Rule, which stays grey until you've typed something.

3. Marker 1Marker 2

   1. 1A rule that Always allow wrote, in the app's own words.
   2. 2The pencil edits a rule and the bin deletes it. A padlock in their place marks a rule set by a team's admin, which you can't change.

   3Find your rule in the list

   Each rule is a row under the form, with its Action and its Behavior. The same list holds every rule that Always allow has written for you.

   On a team account and in older versions of the app, the heading over the form reads Auto-review Rules, as it does in this picture. It's the same list.

Three things decide how a rule behaves:

• When two rules match the same action, Ask first wins.
• An Allow automatically rule lets an action through only when Auto-review finds no other reason to stop it.
• Rules are saved on the computer you wrote them on. A second desktop needs its own.

Good first rules cover what can't be taken back: sending, posting, paying and deleting. Is Grok Bot safe? sorts your own accounts into the ones that need a rule.

#Approvals that arrive while you're away

An approval in a chat you have open waits for you. An approval from work that started without you, such as a routine or a message from another Bot, waits about 10 minutes. Then the card reads Expired, and the action doesn't run.

To get the work moving again:

• Ask the Bot to try the task again, and answer the new card while you're there.
• For an action a routine needs on every run, add an Allow automatically rule, or click Always allow the next time the card appears.
• Answer from wherever you are. A waiting approval also shows in the phone app, and on any other computer where you're signed in.
• Open the Bot's own chat. As of the 12 September 2026 build, a group chat couldn't show an approval card, so a Bot told you the action was blocked and asked you to come to its one-to-one chat.

#Your own computer has a separate setting

Everything so far is about the Bot's computer in the cloud. Whether a Bot may touch the Mac or PC in front of you is a different setting, called Execution on this computer. It's in Settings > Computer, with one row for each computer you've signed in on.

The menu has three choices, and the one you pick covers every Bot:

• Ask every time is where a computer starts. A Bot that wants to run something on your machine shows you the exact command first.
• Always allow lets Bots open files and run tasks there, with Auto-review still checking each one.
• Never allow shuts your computer off from Bots. Choose it unless a job needs your local files.

#Three mistakes with approvals

Each of these makes a Bot ask too much or too little.

Next, see the computer your Bots do all of this on, and what they share there.

Next lessonThe shared computer

All your Bots work on one cloud computer and share its files, logins and programs. See what each Bot keeps to itself, how to take over and what Reset removes.

1. 6 October 2026
   First published.