# Teach a task in Grok Bot and save it as a skill Show a Bot a task once with Teach a task, read the skill it saves, then run it again with a slash. Recordings last up to ten minutes and carry no sound. *From Learn Grok Bot, an independent guide (not affiliated with SpaceXAI or Cursor). Web version: https://learngrokbot.com/skills Last verified: 2026-10-06.* *Step 8 of 9 on the path "Learn Grok Bot, step by step". Before it: [The shared computer](https://learngrokbot.com/shared-computer.md). After it: [Several Bots](https://learngrokbot.com/multiple-bots.md).* To teach a Bot a task, click **+** in its message box, choose **Teach a task** and do the task once on the Bot's computer while it records. The Bot turns the recording into a skill: written steps that any of your Bots can run again when you type **/**. **In short** - **Teach a task** records you working on the Bot's desktop for up to ten minutes, with no sound. - When you stop, the Bot writes the steps down and saves them as a skill. No screen asks you to review it first. - Type **/** in the message box to run a skill. Every Bot on your account has the same skills. - Show a task that is a path of clicks. Describe a task that turns on rules. - Skills are listed under **Connect apps**, where you can change or delete one. You need three things. **What you need** - [ ] The desktop app, in a chat with one Bot. The phone apps can't teach a task. - [ ] A browser task you can finish in under ten minutes, on an example where a mistake costs nothing. - [ ] If the task sits behind a login, the Bot's browser already signed in. [The shared computer](https://learngrokbot.com/shared-computer#hand-back) shows how. ## Teach the task, then run the skill You do the task once on the Bot's desktop while the Bot watches. The walkthrough goes from the first click to the skill's first run. **Walkthrough: Teach a task and run it again** ### Step 1: Click + and choose Teach a task In the Bot's chat, click the **+** at the left of the message box. The menu has two items. Choose **Teach a task**. ![The plus button at the left of the message box, with its menu open above it: Attach files, and Teach a task with a red record icon](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-teach-menu.png) ### Step 2: Click Start recording The Bot's desktop fills the window, under a bar that starts "Record yourself doing a task." Nothing is recorded yet. Decide where you'll begin, then click **Start recording** at the top right. ![The top right corner of the window over the Bot's desktop: a red Start recording button, and an x beside it](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-start-recording.png) ### Step 3: Do the task once, then click the square The bar now says the Bot is watching and learning, and the desktop has a red outline. Work on the Bot's desktop with your own mouse and keyboard: here, opening Chrome from the dock and going to a public changelog page. When the task is done, click the square beside the timer. ![The Bot's desktop with a red outline. Chrome is open on a public changelog page, and the bar above it reads Demo Meeting Prep is watching and learning, with a square stop button and a timer at 1:08 at the top right](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-recording.png) A recording can run for up to ten minutes and carries no sound, so explaining out loud adds nothing. The **x** beside the timer throws the recording away. ### Step 4: Read what the Bot learned The window goes back to the chat, where the app has sent a message for you. About a minute later the Bot reports what it learned. ![A sent message that reads The recording is finished. Learn the task from it, with a Learn from demonstration chip. Under it the Bot describes reviewing the video, then writes Learned Check Cursor changelog from your demo, four numbered steps and Want a dry run?](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-review.png) 1. The app sends this message when you stop. You don't type it. 2. The skill's name is a link to its page. The skill is already saved. 3. These are the steps as the Bot understood them. Step 3 was never in the recording: the Bot added it. ### Step 5: Type / and pick the skill Type **/** in the message box. A list opens with skills tagged **Skill** and app shortcuts tagged **Action**. Type a few letters of the skill's name, press Return to put it in the box, and press Return again to send. ![The message box with /check typed in it. The list above it has two rows: Check Cursor changelog, tagged Skill, and Check for Updates, tagged Action](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-slash-menu.png) ### Step 6: Read the result The skill goes out as a chip, and the Bot does the task. This run took 15 seconds. ![A sent chip that reads Check Cursor change..., then the Bot's replies: Pulling the latest from the Cursor changelog now, a summary with four bullets, and a last line saying the result came from a direct page fetch](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-result.png) 1. Your message is the skill itself, sent as a chip. 2. The Bot says how it got the answer: it fetched the page directly and never opened Chrome. A skill is written instructions, and the Bot follows them in its own way. > **You should see** > > The task's result is in the chat, and the skill is in the **/** list of every Bot on your account. ## Read the skill and fix what the Bot guessed A skill is a page of text that the Bot wrote from one viewing. Open it from the link in the Bot's report, and read it before you rely on it. ![The page for a skill called Check Cursor changelog, marked Private skill, with Publish and Delete Skill buttons. Below are three fields: Name, Description, which starts Use when, and Instructions, which holds a heading and numbered steps. A Save button is at the bottom right](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-skill-page.png) 1. **Description** starts "Use when". It tells a Bot when this skill fits a request. 2. **Instructions** holds the steps as plain text. Any line can be changed. 3. **Save** stays grey until you change something. One demonstration shows one path through a task. Add what the recording couldn't show: - A rule for each decision: what counts as new, urgent or done. - What to do when a page won't load or something is missing. - What to hand back, and in what form. - Which steps need your approval first. Type these into **Instructions** and click **Save**, or tell the Bot in chat what to change and it rewrites the skill. ## Show a task or describe it? Recording is one way to make a skill. The other is to describe the task, or to do it once with the Bot in chat and ask the Bot to save the method. ```prompt title="Save a skill by describing it" Save the process we just used as a skill called "[name]". Include where to look, the rule for what counts as [new, urgent or done], what to send me, and that you ask me before you contact anyone. ``` Show a task when its steps are clicks that are quicker to do than to explain. Describe it when the task turns on a rule, works through a plugin or needs a secret. Sort these six to try the difference. **Sort it: Sort each task: would you show it, or describe it?** Answer: - Downloading last month's invoice from a supplier's website → Show it (A fixed path of clicks through one site is quicker to do than to explain.) - Filling in the same web form from a list every week → Show it (The Bot needs to see which field takes which value.) - Exporting a report through a dashboard's menus and filters → Show it (The menus are the hard part to put in words.) - Deciding which emails count as urgent → Describe it (That's a rule, and one recording can't show a rule.) - Sorting your inbox through the Gmail plugin → Describe it (A recording captures the Bot's screen, and work through a plugin never appears there.) - A task that starts with typing a password → Describe it (Never type a secret into a recording. Sign in first, then describe or show the rest.) ## Find, change or delete a skill Your private skills are one library, shared by every Bot on your account. The library is kept with your plugins. Click **Connect apps** at the bottom of the sidebar, then the count at the top right of the window, which reads something like **3 connected**. **Private skills** is at the foot of the page that opens. ![The Private skills list with one row: a skill called getting-started, with the line Created locally and then a sentence that says when to use it](https://learngrokbot.com/assets/shots/skills-private-list.png) 1. Each row is one skill: its name, **Created locally**, then when a Bot should use it. Click a row to open the skill's page. - To change a skill, edit **Name**, **Description** or **Instructions** on its page and click **Save**. - To remove one, click **Delete Skill** at the top right of its page. The library is shared, so the skill is gone for every Bot. - Skills that came with the app, such as **add-connector**, aren't in this list and can't be deleted. ## Three mistakes when teaching a task Two of these happen while you record, and the third after the skill is saved. > **Common mistake: Typing a password while recording** > > The Bot studies the recording afterwards, and a secret you type during it is part of what you showed. > > **The fix:** Sign in before you click **Start recording**, so the recording starts on a page that's already open. > **Common mistake: Demonstrating on something real** > > What you do during a recording really happens. A comment you post or a form you submit goes out. > > **The fix:** Show the task on a safe example: a draft, a test record or a public page. > **Common mistake: Expecting the skill to run by itself** > > A skill is a saved method. Nothing happens until you or a routine calls it. > > **The fix:** To put a skill on a schedule, ask the Bot for a routine and name the skill in your request. [Routines](https://learngrokbot.com/routines#create) has the steps. Next, decide whether one Bot is enough for the work you've handed over. **Next:** [Decide how many Bots you need](https://learngrokbot.com/multiple-bots) When a second Bot earns its place, what the Main Bot does and how group chats work. ### I can't find Teach a task. Where is it? In the desktop app it's in the **+** menu of the message box, in a chat with one Bot. Earlier versions had a **Teach a task** button at the top right of the Bot's full-screen computer instead. If the menu item is missing, describe the task and ask the Bot to save it as a skill. - 2026-10-06: First published. ## Sources - [SpaceXAI docs: Skills and routines](https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/skills-routines-and-automations) - [Cursor docs: Work with Grok Bot](https://cursor.com/docs/grok-bot/work) - [Cursor Help Center: Store secrets securely](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/secrets) - [SpaceXAI docs: Grok Bot for Mobile](https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/mobile) - [Cursor forum: staff on where skills are edited on desktop](https://forum.cursor.com/t/grok-bot-macos-unable-to-see-or-edit-bot-instructions-or-skills-on-desktop/173803)