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Grok Build

Install: place platforms/grok-build/GROK.md at your repo root; paste its session preamble into custom instructions if your Grok Build environment supports them.

Grok's failure profile​

Fast, eager, terse: it acts before planning, compresses reasoning it should show, and over-trusts first drafts. In long sessions it weights recent instructions over early ones, so discipline set at session start decays.

The countermeasures​

The hard rules as a forced pipeline (Grok's default is to skip ahead):

The hard rules (restate → plan → one-step-per-turn → verify-don't-claim → mark (unverified) → two-fail stop → scope → footer → docs describe current state, not plans → /commit-prep before any commit outside .plans/, and before any merge commit → capacity limits are a scheduling problem, not a failure: checkpoint, then reroute to the next model clearing the task's fitness floor, wait for a near reset, or stop and report — see capacity routing → surface the best-fit skill: before acting, offer an available .grok/skills/ skill or command that fits the request in one line, then proceed — a suggestion, not a gate; only skills actually loaded, at most once per capability per session) plus three Grok-specific ones:

  • Force risk enumeration before the plan ("list 3 ways this could go wrong") — surfaces the reasoning Grok skips.
  • One task spec per session. Restart instead of accumulating context; instruction decay makes long Grok sessions untrustworthy.
  • Architecture and security-adjacent steps are marked Route to: bigger model in the plan — Grok doesn't decide these alone.

Grok 4.6 (and 4.5) (reviewed 2026-08-12)​

Prefer Grok 4.5 for lighter/cheaper mid (file-scoped execute, terminal/CLI); Grok 4.6 for sustained multi-step agent work. Priority tokens: grok:4.5, grok:4.6. Play to terminal/CLI and multi-step loops; decompose repo-scale issues to file-scoped specs. Base catalog tier is mid. A reported reasoning_effort sets effective Preferred tier (low→mid, medium/high→reasoner, xhigh→frontier on 4.6; 4.5 xhigh coerces to high → reasoner). Omitted effort stays mid. TUI: /effort low|medium|high|xhigh; CLI/headless: --effort low. Before /work burns high effort on mid plans, probe for a cheaper local/fleet executor (scripts/endpoints.yaml); if none are reachable, emit the effort command rather than a dead stop. Community-reported tool-use flakiness (unverified) makes external verification load-bearing. Dual-axis, bidirectional fit: too hard → SUGGEST-ESCALATE:; clear over-tier → SUGGEST-DOWNGRADE:; specialty mismatch → SUGGEST-REROUTE:. Mid is a floor Grok clears — do not skip file-scoped mid plans because Preferred also names a stronger product. Reported high does make Grok effective reasoner (skips mid-only Preferred).

If MCP is available, connect anchor-prompts and call tune_prompt on any vague task before starting, and preflight_check before executing any spec.

Tracked plans​

Scaffold installs /draft, /work, /review, /audit (security audit → bug plans; frontier/reasoner), /deploy (ship with the project's own tooling), /optimize (standards scan → checkbox-picked improvement plans), /fleet-watch, /install-anchor, /anchor (conform this project; CWD default), and /local-models (dual-use: also in the Anchor checkout), and the release trio /tag (annotated tag, detects the repo's existing scheme, never pushes), /push (confirmed branch push, --force-with-lease only and only when asked, never tags) and /release (report finished work not on the release base, plan–diff review what is, then tag + push — never merges: branches reach dev via /review Approve or a /work scoped merge). Draft: create/list/load/--promote <slug> (infer bugs vs features); optional --local. /work finishes → review-needed/; human /review Approve merges feature→dev then → completed/ (empty queue may Promote dev→main). Git: worktree per agent (worktree_for_agent.py), feature branches from dev/develop (create dev from main/master if missing); /work merges only on the operator's in-session culmination answer, scoped, dev only. Grok 4.5 may act as temporary coordinator when Preferred orchestrator is unset. /install-anchor registers the CLI on PATH (user-local symlink, no sudo). Full contract: source platforms/grok-build/GROK.md.

/commit-prep​

Required before any commit that touches a path outside .plans/, and before any merge commit. A commit whose paths are entirely under .plans/ — a lane move, review notes, a ## Handoff line — takes the light path: state what moved and why, then commit; no CHANGELOG, no blog, no test run. Agents run /commit-prep (discover this project’s tests/CI; CHANGELOG; blog-if-warranted — no Docusaurus required). Prep only — does not commit. After a green prep, /work / standing rules cover feature-branch commit (worktree preferred; merge to dev only via /work's culmination answer + scoped gate; never to main).