The shared computer: what all your Bots can see

The single most important fact about Grok Bot's design is also the easiest to miss: your Bots don't each get a computer. They share one.

One computer per person, not per Bot

The computer is assigned to your user account. Each Bot gets its own screen on it, so several can work in parallel, but “the screens are separate work surfaces, not separate security boundaries.” Between different users, isolation is strict: each user's computer is dedicated and hardware-isolated.

The official Grok Bot 101 guide puts the consequence in one line: “if you log into a site with one bot, every other bot can reach that site too.”

What's shared and what isn't

Vault is explicitly account-wide: “everything you save is available to every Bot on your account, and you can't limit an item to one Bot” (Vault docs). Connected apps work the same way: “A connected app is available to every Bot you run.”

Why it's built this way

Sharing is the point. A research Bot can save a file and a writing Bot can pick it up. You sign in to a site once instead of once per Bot. Handoffs work “without repeating setup,” as the overview puts it. The trade-off is that access granted for one job is available to every job.

What it means in practice

So if you add a template from a stranger, it lands on the same computer as your finance Bot, with the same signed-in browser. If you keep an API key in a file on the computer, every Bot can read it.

How to keep access tight

The docs list four habits for the shared computer:

1. Don't use separate Bots as a security boundary.
2. Sign out of a service when it should no longer be available.
3. Remove sensitive temporary files after the work is complete.
4. Delete a connector or revoke its authorization in the source service when access is no longer needed.

And a few more from the same docs:

• Never paste a password, one-time code or API key into chat. Bots sign in with Vault, a connected password manager or a Secure Form, and the values are filled in without being shown to the model. For API keys, use the secure secret card when the Bot asks.
• Keep your own computer out of it unless needed. Running commands on your desktop is a separate permission under Settings → Computer → Your computer, and its default is Ask every time. The docs suggest Never allow unless a Bot has a specific reason to work on your local files.

Deleting a Bot doesn't clean the computer

Deleting a Bot erases its profile, conversations, memory, routines and attachments, and can't be undone. But “files and sign-ins on the shared computer aren't isolated per Bot and can remain there; clean them up separately” (docs). If you may need the work later, Hide from sidebar instead.

Shared Bots work a little differently

When you chat with a teammate's shared Bot, it usually works on your computer, not theirs. A shared Bot asks before it uses your accounts, and the apps, secrets, skills and files its owner adds work in every teammate's chat, so owners should only add keys they're happy for everyone to use. For the approval side of all this, read Auto Review and approval cards.