Five Bots, One Computer
Five bots. One computer. All signed in as you.
Remember
Your bots share one computer. Treat them as one trust zone.
Context
Grok Bot (xAI, early beta since August 2026) is a phone-first app for a team of always-on agents: named bots with a job (Chief of Staff, EA, Inbox Manager, Invoice Collector, Customer Support) that you message from the app. The work runs on one cloud computer per account, which keeps going when the app is closed. This Short is the 2:45 companion to the landscape deep dive ai-visual-deep-dive/specs/grok-bot-deep-dive.md.
Architecture
| Component | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phone app | You message bots, approve drafts, sign in when asked | Light app; each bot is a coloured character |
| Cloud computer | One persistent machine per account: browser, files, terminal | "All of your Bots use the same cloud computer" (xAI docs) |
| Bots | Named agents with a job; run in parallel, message each other, hand off tasks | Group chats between bots |
| Shared browser | Every bot drives the same browser profile | Sessions created by one bot are there for all |
| Connectors | Scoped access to Gmail, Calendar, Drive… | Narrower than a browser session |
Why it happens
The computer belongs to the account, not to a bot. xAI's docs say to "treat anything placed on it as available to every Bot you run". Separate bots are a way to organise work, not a security boundary.
The fix
Treat the whole computer as one trust zone, set up on purpose:
- Bots that browse the open web run signed out (or on a separate account).
- Prefer scoped connectors over browser sessions for mail, calendar and files.
- Read every draft in full before approving it.
- Sign out after a password hand-off so the session doesn't linger.
- Put limits on routines that run unattended.
Trade-offs
- Signed-out web bots can't reach pages behind a login; split such tasks or use a connector.
- Connectors cover fewer sites than a browser; some jobs still need a session, and you accept the shared-zone risk.
- More approvals mean more interruptions; approval fatigue is its own failure mode.
Numbers worth knowing
- Five bots, one computer: the example team in this video (illustrative).
- 2:45: YouTube accepts vertical Shorts up to 3 minutes.
Sources
xAI, Grok Bot overview (docs.x.ai/grok-bot/overview): shared cloud computer, "treat anything placed on it as available
Early-beta reviews (eesel, Vellum) for the password hand-off; see
ai-visual-deep-dive/plans/grok-bot-deep-dive.md.OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, LLM01 Prompt Injection.
