$ termdex

Coding agent (CLI) · xAI (its current pages brand the company SpaceXAI; the docs site also writes SpaceXSI)

Grok Build

xAI's terminal coding agent, run as grok. Full-screen TUI with plan mode, subagents, worktrees, MCP and headless or ACP use. First-party source is public under Apache-2.0; needs sign-in or an API key.

Reviewed by the Termdex team · facts checked 2026-10-21 against 26 vendor sources · how we check

Official site

Grok Build review

Grok Build is a terminal coding agent from xAI, started with grok. The pages we read call the company SpaceXAI. The docs say it runs as a full-screen text interface, headless with grok -p, or over the Agent Client Protocol. We read the vendor docs, the repository's README and licence files, and Internet Archive copies of x.ai pages, as x.ai returned 403 to us. The copies date from 25 July 2026 (product), 6 September 2026 (changelog) and 11 November 2026 (pricing). We did not install or run it.

What the docs describe

Source, install and cost

First-party code is public at xai-org/grok-build under Apache-2.0. GitHub's API showed 27,746 stars on 12 November 2026. The README says it is synced from the vendor's monorepo, and CONTRIBUTING says outside pull requests are not accepted. The README says prebuilt binaries cover macOS, Linux and Windows.

We found no separate price for the CLI. On the archived pricing page, Plus is $8 a month with Build in a shared usage pool, and Premium is $30. The compare table lists Grok Build as "Limited" on Free and "Included" on Plus and above. We found no per-plan usage numbers. The newest archived changelog entry is v1.0.13 (28 August 2026), but the repository manifests say 1.0.45, so that archive may be stale.

Limits worth knowing

The docs say the sandbox is off by default, its child-process network limit is enforced on Linux only, and built-in profiles do not permanently protect paths such as ~/.ssh. They also say plan mode gates edit tools, not the shell, so bash can still write files by redirection.

See also Claude Code, Codex CLI and OpenCode.

Grok Build at a glance: on macOS, Windows, Linux, freemium, Apache-2.0 for first-party code licence.
Platforms, price and licence at a glance, from the vendor pages we read.

Facts: platforms, price and licence

platforms
macOSWindowsLinuxDocs give a curl installer (the README labels it macOS / Linux / Git Bash) and a PowerShell installer for Windows; the README says prebuilt binaries are published for macOS, Linux and Windows. The README calls Windows source builds best-effort and not currently tested from the public tree. x.ai returned 403 to our fetches, so x.ai/cli, x.ai/pricing and x.ai/build/changelog were read through Internet Archive copies (captured 2026-07-25, 2026-11-11 and 2026-09-06 respectively).
price
FreemiumNo standalone price for the CLI was found. Access runs through sign-in (browser, or XAI_API_KEY where there is no browser). Archived x.ai/pricing (captured 2026-11-11, not the live page) lists Free $0, Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month (4x Plus usage), Super $100/month (15x), Ultra $200/month (50x); Teams from $30/user/month. Its compare table (read from the page HTML) shows Grok Build as 'Limited' on Free and 'Included' on Plus, Premium, Super, Ultra, Teams and Enterprise; the Plus card lists 'Grok Chat, Voice, Imagine, and Build' from a shared usage pool. docs.x.ai/x-subscription/pricing lists the same individual prices (annual: Plus $80, Premium $300, Super $1000, Ultra $2000), shows Free included usage as 'Limited', and says to see x.ai/pricing for current terms. An archived x.ai/cli (captured 2026-07-25) said 'Available to try for Free'. No per-plan Grok Build usage numbers were found. API-key usage billing was not checked. Seen 2026-11-12.
source
Open sourceLicence: Apache-2.0 for first-party code (LICENSE file begins 'Copyright 2023-2026 SpaceXAI'; README says third-party and vendored code keeps its own licences, listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES)
github
xai-org/grok-build 27.8k stars, seen 2026-11-13

Grok Build features

✓ documented · – absent or not in its feature list · ? not verified

Grok Build strengths

  • Public Rust source under Apache-2.0 at xai-org/grok-build, with prebuilt installers for macOS, Linux and Windows
  • Plan mode blocks edit tools until you approve a plan; permission modes (ask, auto, always-approve) with allow/deny rules; optional sandbox profiles using Seatbelt on macOS and Landlock on Linux
  • Parallel work is documented: subagents, git worktree sessions, background tasks, an agent dashboard, and headless (grok -p) or ACP use for scripts and editors
  • Reads MCP config from Claude Code and Cursor files, adds servers with grok mcp, and grok import brings in Claude Code sessions

Grok Build weak points

  • The sandbox is off by default; child-network limits are enforced on Linux only (no-op on macOS for read-only and strict), and built-in profiles do not permanently protect paths such as ~/.ssh
  • Plan mode gates edit tools, not the shell, so bash can still write files by redirection
  • The public repo accepts no external pull requests and is synced periodically from an internal monorepo; Windows source builds are best-effort and untested from that tree
  • Needs sign-in or an XAI_API_KEY; the archived pricing page marks Grok Build on the Free plan as 'Limited' and no usage numbers per plan were found
  • Terminal quirks are documented: Apple Terminal ignores OSC 52 clipboard writes, and VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf and Zed terminals cannot tell Shift+Enter from Enter

Who Grok Build is for

best for
Developers who already use or would use an xAI/Grok account and want a terminal coding agent with plan review, worktrees and headless mode, with source they can read.
look elsewhere if
Anyone who wants a general terminal emulator or SSH client, or who needs published per-plan usage numbers before committing (none were found).

Lists that include Grok Build

Sources and what we could not verify

Checked 2026-10-21. Prices and features change; the vendor's page is the authority.

Not verified