Skills, Teach a task, and routines

Beginner · How-to · Beginner hub

A skill is how. A routine is when. Get a one-off task working first, save the method as a skill, then automate it.

This guide summarizes the Skills and routines page in the xAI Grok Bot docs.

Save a skill

A skill is a reusable set of instructions: steps, decision rules, expected output, and what needs your approval. Skills can be used across your Bots. A Bot still needs the right connector or login to run one.

After a task works, ask the Bot to save it. A useful skill names:

1. When to use it
2. Required inputs and access
3. The sequence of work
4. How to validate the result
5. What to return
6. What requires approval

Type / in the desktop composer to reference a saved skill. Use @ for Bots, groups, routines, and connectors. If a skill is missing from /, open Settings → Plugins → Yours and enable it for the current Bot.

Teach a task

When Teach a task is available, you can demonstrate a browser workflow instead of writing every step.

1. Open a one-to-one Bot chat and its computer view.
2. Choose Teach a task.
3. Describe the result you are about to show.
4. Perform the workflow once.
5. Stop the recording and review the skill the Bot drafts.
6. Test it on a safe example before you schedule anything.

Teaching records visible computer interaction for up to ten minutes. It does not record microphone audio. Do not expose secrets in the demo; use the secure handoff for credentials.

The learned skill is a draft. Add decision rules, failure handling, and approval boundaries that one pass may not show. If Teach a task is not visible yet, ask the Bot to build a skill from your written instructions and the finished task.

Create a routine

A routine tells one Bot when to run a workflow, on a schedule or, where supported, after an event.

Ask the Bot that should own the job. Confirm:

The owning Bot
The schedule and time zone
The input source
The expected result
The approval boundary
What to do when a source is missing

The Bot creates the routine and shows the next run. Background routines can run while your laptop is closed.

Event triggers

Cursor account integrations can start a routine from an event (for example Slack or GitHub). Those connections are separate from Slack or GitHub plugins and may need their own setup.

Keep the matching rule narrow. Broad listeners like “every new message” burn usage and act on junk.

Test before enabling

Use Test run after you create or edit a routine. A test run does real work: it can change files and call connected tools. Use safe inputs and keep write actions behind approval.

Check that it picked current inputs, hit the right output format, stopped at the approval point, and reported failures clearly.

Manage routines

Open the Bot → View conversation details → Routines. From there you can enable, pause, test, edit, inspect recent runs, or delete. Delete is immediate and has no undo. Deleting a Bot also removes its routines.

A Bot can own up to 50 routines. The app keeps the 20 most recent run records per routine.

Trust defaults

Automate preparation before execution. Draft and recommend first.

Require approval for sending, purchasing, deleting, publishing, or changing production systems. Include a no-data / stale-data rule. Re-test after a site, connector, or source format changes.

Source: xAI Grok Bot docs: Skills and routines

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