Biology research can silence a Grok Bot, staff say

Grok BotWhat's new#

No new version shipped overnight. The changelog still ends at 0.68.1 from Oct 7, and Bot email addresses, which launched at 1:25 PM ET Friday, are still rolling out. (confirmed)

Biology research can trip the safety filter (confirmed)#

What happened: Grok Bot shows a generic error when the model provider's safety filter refuses a reply. Staff say the app shows that as "Something went wrong" instead of saying the reply was blocked. On Oct 8, staff member kevinn said the filter had flagged "something in this bot's conversation history as sensitive security content," and since "every new message is sent together with that history," every reply was refused. This morning Colin confirmed that some scientific topics, especially biology and the life sciences, can trip the same filter.

Who is affected: a Bot whose history was flagged as sensitive security content, and Bots doing scientific research, especially biology and the life sciences. One user reported that a scientific literature review broke the original Bot, the replacements, and the primary Bot, and that new Bots broke the same way once asked for one.

Key quotes: Colin said "some scientific topics, especially in biology and the life sciences, can trip it even for legitimate research." He told another user the filter had flagged "sensitive biology content" since Oct 8, and that "a new bot can also run into the same filter if its conversation covers similar biology material."

What to do now:

1. Check whether one Bot fails or all of them. If all fail, check status.cursor.com instead.
2. If only one fails, stop resending. Each retry sends the same history.
3. Use another Bot, or a new one, for unrelated work. Staff said restarting the app or rebooting didn't help, and a Reset wouldn't either, because the problem is in the conversation. A new Bot "can also run into the same filter if its conversation covers similar biology material."
4. Don't ask another Bot to "read, summarize or continue" the blocked chat. Staff warned, "That can carry the same content over and get that bot blocked too."
5. Don't delete the stuck Bot. Colin asked users to keep them "so their history is still there if a recovery option becomes available." Staff said its "history, memory and routines are all still there, and nothing has been deleted."

What to watch: Colin passed the new cases to the team at 6:43 and 6:45 AM ET. At 6:45 he included that the app only shows a generic error and that there is no way to recover a stuck Bot. There's no fix date, and "Today there isn't a way in the app" to remove only the blocked part of a chat.

Routines that should run on new email won't save (confirmed)#

What happened: a Bot can claim its mail.grokbot.com inbox, but saving a routine that fires on incoming mail fails with "Not a valid trigger." A user reported it at 3:05 PM ET Friday on two Bots. Staff member kevinn found that "each time your Bot tried to save the routine, it left the inbox address out of the email trigger (even though its summary says it included it)," and said "this isn't caused by anything in your setup."

Who is affected: anyone who wants a Bot to act on mail as it arrives. New mail "doesn't start a chat or wake a Bot on its own," the help page says. "A Bot acts on incoming mail only through a routine you create."

What to do now:

1. On desktop, click the Bot's name at the top of the chat, choose Tasks, and check that the routine is listed under Routines. Don't trust the summary alone.
2. If it's missing, use a scheduled check. Staff said "the cron routine that checks the inbox is the right workaround."
3. Each run spends usage, the routines help page says, so a routine that runs often spends more than one that runs rarely. Widen the schedule. A scheduled check runs on its interval even when nothing arrived.

What to watch: kevinn passed it to the team at 9:32 PM ET with no fix date, and said "I'll post here when I have an update."

Desktop Bot instructions were removed on purpose (confirmed)#

What happened: the per-Bot instructions field is gone from the desktop app. At 7:50 PM ET Friday, kevinn said the simpler details pane "was an intentional redesign," with "no timeline to share yet." He added that the Instructions field in the phone apps "isn't currently being applied reliably," and that help pages "still describe the older Bot settings layout, including the advice to put lasting rules in the description."

Who is affected: anyone who runs several specialist Bots on desktop, and anyone who followed our earlier description tip, which we've updated.

What to do now:

1. Put hard stops in Settings > General > Auto-review as Ask first rules. Staff say they "always stop matching actions for your approval." They are "stored per desktop install," so set them on each computer.
2. Save each role's procedure as a private skill named after the role, such as "Risk review procedure." Skills are available to every Bot on your account.
3. Find and edit skills under Marketplace or Connect apps at the bottom of the sidebar, then Yours > Private skills, and reference one with / in a request or routine.

What to watch: users in the thread pushed back hard. kevinn said "I'll post here when there's an update."

The Mac helper stays off for scheduled jobs (confirmed)#

What happened: on Oct 5, Colin called it a power-saving behavior. The app stops the local helper when the screen is locked, or the Grok Bot window has been in the background for about 10 minutes, and the Bot's cloud computer has gone to sleep. On Oct 8, on 0.68.1, deanrie said "This is a known issue and we're tracking it." On Oct 9 at 12:29 PM ET, he added that the Mac counts as "away" even while you work in other apps, and the helper "doesn't automatically start again when the bot wakes up for a scheduled job."

Who is affected: people who leave a Mac running so a Bot can run commands on it, especially for scheduled jobs.

What to do now:

1. Click into the Grok Bot window "a couple of minutes before your hourly jobs run." It should reconnect "in about a minute."
2. Keep the window open and in the foreground. Don't minimize it or cover it with another app.
3. Only if the Mac is in a physically secure place: in System Settings, Lock Screen, set "Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off" to Never. The display can still turn off. This disables the lock screen.
4. Don't count on quitting and reopening the app while the screen is locked. Staff said it usually comes back without the helper.

What to watch: there's "no separate setting to turn this behavior off yet," and staff will post when there's a version to re-test.

Friday evening outages (confirmed)#

The status page shows a Cloud Agents slowdown from 5:31 to 5:42 PM ET, then an incident from 6:37 to 7:09 PM ET when "some new Cloud Agents and Grok Bot sessions may fail to start." Both are resolved. If a new Grok Bot session failed to start between 6:37 and 7:09 PM ET, send the message again.

Grok BotHow people are using it#

• Bot email on your own domain: @wiiiimm forwards bot@yourdomain.com to his Bot's mail.grokbot.com inbox with Cloudflare Email Routing, and has the Bot open Cloudflare's verification link itself. Credit: @wiiiimm (https://x.com/wiiiimm/status/2108619668449615921).
• Skills in place of instructions: With no instructions field on desktop, save each role's procedure as a skill named after the role, call it with /, and put hard stops in Ask first rules. Credit: kevinn, Cursor forum staff (https://forum.cursor.com/t/grok-bot-macos-unable-to-see-or-edit-bot-instructions-or-skills-on-desktop/173803/12).
• Teams without a plugin: Give the Bot its own Microsoft 365 user and have it use Teams on its computer, so teammates see the Bot, not you. Credit: deanrie, Cursor forum staff (https://forum.cursor.com/t/ideas-for-grokbot-to-message-human-team-members/170406/6).

Grok BotThe digest#

The safety filter story got bigger. On Thursday, staff tied one silent Bot to "sensitive security content" in its history. This morning, Colin told a user whose Bots broke on literature reviews that "some scientific topics, especially in biology and the life sciences, can trip it even for legitimate research." He told another user the filter had flagged "sensitive biology content" since Oct 8, and that "a new bot can also run into the same filter if its conversation covers similar biology material." The app still shows "Something went wrong," and you can't remove only the blocked part. Use another Bot, don't pass a stuck chat on, and don't delete the stuck one.

Desktop Bot instructions aren't coming back soon. Staff member kevinn said at 7:50 PM ET Friday that the simpler details pane "was an intentional redesign," that there's "no timeline to share yet," and that the Instructions field in the phone apps "isn't currently being applied reliably." He also said some help pages still give the old advice to put lasting rules in a Bot's description. We had published that advice too, so we've added an update to our description tip. Users in the thread pushed back hard, and one asked what Bots are for if you can't define what they do. Watch that thread, where staff promised to post any change.

Bot email users are wiring the new inboxes into mail they already have. Jason Russell forwards his Fastmail to his Bot's inbox, and says the Bot "responds to Fastmail live, no more scheduled routine." @wiiiimm routes an address on his own domain to it with Cloudflare Email Routing. (reported) Those are inbound forwards. The help page says the Bot sends from its mail.grokbot.com address, and "A Bot acts on incoming mail only through a routine you create." If you've also connected Gmail or Outlook, the Bot asks which account to send from. (confirmed)

For teams: there's no setting that stops members from creating their own Bots, Colin told @Bill_V. In the opening post, Bill_V had called it "likely a deal-breaker." Admins can limit who gets Grok Bot at all, push Team Bots to groups, and keep members as Collaborators. The team's Grok Bot controls (agent capabilities, network access, enforced Auto-review), he said, "also apply to Bots members create themselves." He passed on the request for an admin-only setting. Separately, deanrie said on Oct 10 there is still no Teams plugin, so a Bot can't post directly into Teams, and a full integration "is on the team's radar." Our Sep 11 connector entry is the earlier @bot claim that Bots can search and act across Teams.

Three older issues are still open. Scheduled routines still have no staff all-clear, though one user said Friday morning they "seem be running better." The HTTPS-only block on Bot computers is in its tenth day. Overnight, @th3d00dj03 reported AirDroid remote control failing on ports 8091, 6977 and 9088, "now even on HTTPS," while @Hreinn and @David_Schmitt1 say connecting to the real IPv4 address works around the older hostname block. And a user retested template imports this morning: "the preview shows 7 skills, the imported bot got none."

On plans: on legacy request-based Cursor pricing, "Grok Bot isn't available through any route, and that includes linking a SuperGrok subscription," Colin said Friday. Switching to usage-based pricing is the only way in, and he warned "this switch is one-way and applies to all of your Cursor usage, not only Grok Bot."

@poteto asked at 2:36 AM ET "what did you get done this week with @bot?" and drew hundreds of replies. Two stood out. @Grant_112 said his nightly candle ingest "fell from 10% of my usage to about 3% by moving work to scripts." @Ade0d4tuselectr said he runs "36 bots plus group rooms for a real electrical contractor," with "89 jobs handed out, 82 finished." Both are self-reported. Others replied that they hit their limits or got stuck on captchas.

What to watch: a hands-on Grok Bot setup workshop in Seattle on Mon Oct 12 at 6 PM PT is past capacity, with a waitlist. On the forum, watch for a recovery option for filter-blocked Bots, a fix for email-triggered routines, and a staff all-clear on scheduled routines. On desktop, watch kevinn's thread for any change to Bot instructions.