Connect apps to a fleet of Grok Bots without over-sharing

Update, Oct 9: Bots can now have their own email address. We added it to step 4 as a way to keep sign-ups off your main mailbox, per Cursor's new help page.

Connecting an app to Grok Bot takes a minute. With several Bots, the harder part is deciding what to connect, with which account, and at what level of access, because a connection you make for one Bot is open to all of them. This guide is about those choices. It's part 6 of our series on running a fleet of Bots.

For the sign-in steps themselves, see our guide to connecting Gmail, Calendar, and Notion. For what a plugin is, see What is a plugin?.

We haven't connected apps in the Grok Bot app for this guide. The Daily Bot works on a Bot computer without the desktop app. The steps come from Cursor's docs and help center, the changelog, and SpaceXAI staff guides, each linked.

Why it matters#

Connections aren't per Bot. "Plugins are account-wide. An installed plugin is available to every Bot you run," Cursor's docs say. The help center says every Bot on your account can use every connected account.

Bots act as you. "A Bot can never hold more access than the person it belongs to," per Cursor's security docs, but it can use all of yours.

And what an app returns can try to steer a Bot. "Content a Bot reads from the outside world, like web pages, plugin results, and command output, can try to steer it," the security docs say. Grok Bot's defenses "reduce, but don't eliminate, risk from malicious content, which is another reason to keep consequential actions behind approval."

How to use it#

1. Connect only what a job needs#

Josh Kim's closing advice in his marketing guide is "Connect only the tools that job needs." With account-wide plugins, apply that to the whole fleet: if no Bot's job needs an app, don't connect it.

You can also narrow a plugin you do connect. "Individual plugin tools can be enabled or disabled," per Cursor's settings docs. Since Sep 16, the built-in GitHub plugin's page "lists its tools so you can turn each one off." Needs re-check: GitHub is the only plugin where the changelog confirms per-tool switches.

Labels have moved. Since Sep 26, the sidebar's Marketplace button reads Connect apps, while Cursor's docs and help center still say Plugins. Needs re-check: look for either name.

2. Start at read and draft#

Simon Lackowski lists his connections in his founder-led sales guide with the access level next to each: "Gmail and Calendar (drafts and read only)" and "LinkedIn and X (read and draft only, I post by hand)."

Kim widens access in steps: "I start permissions small. Doc rewrites and Slack draft replies before anyone gets ads write or prod. Trust comes from delivered work, not from handing over the company credit card on day one."

Email and Slack drafts are on unless you turn them off. Since Sep 30, draft cards offer Disable drafts for this Bot, which lets that Bot send directly. Leave it alone until a Bot has earned it.

3. Write per-Bot limits into descriptions#

Because every Bot can reach every connected app, the description is where you say which Bot may use what. Kim's Inbox Manager in his Grok Bot for Work guide is "read-only by default" and will "never send or reply or react without me typing 'send' in that moment."

Ryan Perry's analytics Bot, in his mobile app development guide, lists the exact services it's signed into and adds: "If a tool you need is not connected, ask me before working around it." Part 2 of this series covers descriptions, and part 7 covers approvals.

4. Give risky jobs their own account#

When a Bot's job involves sites or people you don't control, keep it off your main identity. Lackowski's competitor-watching Bot "watches competitors from its own research email, never mine."

Some plugins let you add a second account and label it, as our tip on adding a second plugin account explains. "Gmail connects one mailbox at a time," per the help center, which adds: "Disconnect Gmail if a bot should not use that mailbox." Since Oct 2, connected Google accounts "show their email address instead of default," so you can tell which is which.

Since Oct 9 there's a built-in option for this: claim a mail.grokbot.com address for your Bots and sign them up for services with it instead of your own mailbox. It belongs to you, not to one Bot, so every Bot on your account can use it in your own chats and routines, but not in Slack threads or chats where someone else is talking to the Bot. Mail from other people is treated "as information, not instructions," the help center says.

5. Close the website path too#

A blocked plugin isn't a blocked service. "Blocking a plugin doesn't block that service's website," Cursor's docs say. A Bot could still reach the service through its browser. Closing that path "takes Network Controls, which is Enterprise only."

Browser sign-ins are shared too. "All your Bots share one computer. After you sign in, every Bot on your account can use that sign-in until it expires," the help center says. "Don't sign in to an account on the Bot's computer if one of your Bots shouldn't use it."

6. Know how Team Bots use your accounts#

On Cursor teams, a teammate's Team Bot "asks before it uses one of your personal accounts," per the help center. Since Sep 26, Always allow "covers that Bot or every Team Bot until you choose Clear connector preferences." In Slack channels, threads, and group chats, a Team Bot "uses only its owner's plugins," the help center says.

If you own a Team Bot, its plugins and secrets work for everyone who chats with it. "Only bring keys you're happy for the whole team to use," per the same page.

7. Revoke what you stop using#

Disconnecting in Grok Bot is half the job. When "a project or login should no longer be available," Cursor's security docs say to "uninstall plugins and revoke their authorization in the source service," and to sign out of websites on the computer. "Deleting a Bot doesn't remove computer files or browser sessions."

A prompt written by us, to find connections nobody uses:

List the apps you've used in the last two weeks and what you did in each: read, draft, or write. Tell me which connected apps you never used. Don't disconnect anything.

Good to know#

• Plugin sign-ins never reach the Bot. "Connector tokens stay on Cursor's backend," and "tokens are never stored on the computer," per the security docs.
• On a Cursor team, a plugin your admin blocked shows Disabled by team admin, per Cursor's docs.

Sources#

• Cursor Docs: Work with Grok Bot
• Cursor Docs: Grok Bot security
• Cursor Docs: Settings and notifications
• Cursor Help Center: Grok Bot How Tos
• Cursor Help Center: Team Bots
• Cursor Help Center: Connect plugins
• Josh Kim: Grok Bot for Marketing
• Josh Kim: Grok Bot for Work
• Simon Lackowski: Grok Bot for Founder-Led Sales
• Ryan Perry: Grok Bot for Mobile App Development
• Grok Bot changelog
• Cursor Help Center: Give your Bot an email address