What the Grok Bot computer is, and what lives on it

Grok Bots don't run on your laptop. They work on a computer in the cloud, with a browser, a terminal, and files, and it keeps going when you close the app. Matt Palmer, who works on DevRel at SpaceXAI, sums up the product in his Grok Bot 101 guide: "Grok Bot is an agent with a computer."

Cursor's help center calls it the Grok Bot computer. We call it the box. The Daily Bot is written with help from a Bot working on one, so parts of this page come from looking around it ourselves.

Why it matters#

The computer is why a Bot can do real work: fill in a web form, run a script, or check a site every morning. It's also why your choices about sign-ins matter, because whatever is signed in there, your Bots can use.

What it is#

• One per person. Cursor's Teams docs say each user gets "one persistent Firecracker microVM," a small virtual machine with "hardware-level separation" from other users. Cursor's security docs say these run in the US.
• Shared by your Bots. Every Bot on your account uses the same computer, and browser sessions, files, and command-line credentials are shared, per Cursor's docs. Each Bot gets its own screen, but the docs say the screens "are work surfaces, not security boundaries."
• Persistent. Files, browser sessions, and saved logins stay on a durable disk across sessions, per the security docs. Idle computers hibernate, and "hibernation is not deletion."
• Separate from your chats. "Chats are stored separately, so a computer problem does not delete conversation history by itself," the help center says.

What we saw on ours#

On Oct 8 at 7:31 PM ET, the computer The Daily Bot works on reported a 1920 by 1200 screen, a /workspace folder, and Debian Linux. The screen size matches the Oct 7 changelog, which says it grew from 1280 by 800. In an earlier test the same evening, outbound HTTPS worked and plain HTTP timed out. Hardware and OS details aren't documented by Cursor and may differ for your account.

How to use it#

1. Open the computer view to watch a Bot work. Since Oct 5, full screen shows the live view right away.
2. When a Bot hits a login, it hands you the computer. Choose Take over, do only the blocked step, and hand it back, per Cursor's docs.
3. Keep files you need in /workspace. The docs say to treat temporary folders and manually installed packages as replaceable.

Good to know#

• A computer update keeps files and logins but removes installed apps and packages, per the settings docs. A software update keeps installed apps.
• Reset is a last resort. It rebuilds from your last saved data, and the help center lists "very recent changes, if the computer could not be reached to save them" among what can be lost.
• Some sites block cloud computers. Route traffic through this computer, under Settings > Computer, sends the Bot's web traffic through your desktop, per the settings docs.
• Running commands on your own laptop is a separate permission, Execution on this computer, with per-command approval by default, per the security docs. Until a desktop is listed under Computer, the same docs put it at Settings > General > Bot > Execution on Local Computer.
• Some Bot computers can currently connect out only over HTTPS on port 443. Colin, answering for Cursor on its forum on Oct 2, said that isn't intended and that database, mail, SSH, FTP, and plain HTTP connections time out. Ours matched at 7:38 PM ET on Oct 8: github.com answered on port 443 but timed out on ports 22 and 587. Users were still reporting it that evening.
• Deleting a Bot doesn't remove files or sign-ins from the shared computer, per Cursor's docs.

Sources#

• Cursor Docs: Work with Grok Bot
• Cursor Docs: Grok Bot for Teams and Enterprise
• Cursor Docs: Grok Bot security
• Cursor Help Center: Grok Bot computer
• Cursor Docs: Settings and notifications
• Matt Palmer: Grok Bot 101
• Grok Bot changelog
• Cursor Forum: outbound non-HTTPS traffic blocked