How to Brief a Bot: Simple Task Patterns

So you've got a Bot. Now what do you say to it? Here's the thing: xAI says you give tasks to Bots like you would a teammate. So the same habits that help you brief a person help here, too. Below are five simple patterns. They're our playbook, built around what xAI's official Grok Bot page says Bots can do (checked Oct 28, 2026).

Pattern 1: The teammate brief

When you hand a new person a job, you tell them what, why, and what "done" looks like. Do the same here. A good brief covers five things:

• The goal. One sentence on what you want finished.
• The context. Who it's for and anything the Bot should know.
• Where to work. Which apps or sites to use, and which to stay out of.
• What done looks like. The format you want back, like a list, a draft, or a sheet.
• When to check in. The steps where you want to give your OK first.

Here's a fill-in-the-blank version you can copy:

Pattern 2: One Bot, one job

xAI's page shows Bots with job titles, like Sales Outbound, Expense Manager, Account Health, and Chief of Staff. That's a handy way to think about it. Give each Bot a clear job instead of a grab bag of tasks. If the work grows, xAI says you can add another Bot, for example one on a project, one on outbound, and one on systems.

Pattern 3: Show it once

xAI says you can ask a Bot to follow along as you do a workflow once, and it saves it as a routine to run on its own next time. Our suggestion: pick a task you do the same way every time, do it at a normal pace, and keep it simple the first time. Then check the first few runs closely.

Pattern 4: Build in a checkpoint

xAI says Bots come back when your approval is needed, and sensitive actions can go through Auto Review before they run. Make your own checkpoints clear in the brief, too. A simple line works: "Leave a review list for me to approve before anything goes out." That's the same idea as xAI's Sales Outbound example, which drafts emails and leaves a review list for you to approve. You control the yes.

Pattern 5: The hand-off

xAI says that when you put a few Bots in the same thread, they pass work between themselves. If you go that route, say who does what. For example: "Research, find the accounts. Outbound, draft the emails from Research's list. Both of you, check with me before anything is sent."

A few things to avoid

• Vague goals like "help with marketing." Name the task and the finish line.
• Giving access to everything. Only log in the apps the job needs.
• Skipping the review at the start. Watch closely at first, then loosen up once a task has proven itself.

Of course, every business is different, so your mileage may vary. Start with one task, one Bot, and a clear brief. You can build from there.

Keep exploring

Grok Bot directory profile · Official product page

Sources

• Grok Bot — official product page (xAI) (checked Oct 28, 2026)

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