TUI Guide

The TUI is the most complete way to use Grok Code. It is where setup, guided workflows, staged review, and session continuity make the most sense.

Launching The TUI

grok

If xAI is not configured yet, start with:

/connect

How The TUI Is Organized

The TUI is built around lanes and workflows, not around a long list of buttons.

The Main Lanes

• Work: the primary chat and coding lane
• Gate: review staged change artifacts before landing them
• Research: search, inspect, pin, and package evidence
• Recall: reopen saved sessions and branches
• Control: setup, readiness, permissions, MCP, browser status, and verification status

Use /deck when you are unsure where to go.

The Fastest Navigation Shortcuts

• ctrl+p: command palette
• ctrl+g: permission mode
• shift+tab: plan mode toggle
• f6: mouse scroll or selection mode
• /deck: lane chooser
• /preferences: settings modal

Work Lane

Work is where you ask Grok Code to do things.

Use it for:

• coding tasks
• reviews
• refactors
• interactive follow-up
• task modes such as /quick, /deep, /persist, and /qa

Important behavior:

• TUI edits usually do not land immediately
• Grok Code stages reviewable artifacts and sends them to Gate
• this is different from CLI run and exec, which apply successful edits live

Useful commands here:

• /model
• /profile
• /steer
• /followup
• /search
• /mission

Gate Lane

Gate is the governed review surface.

Use it when Grok Code staged changes for review.

Core actions:

• /gate: open the full lane
• /gate drawer: show the compact drawer inside Work
• /gate apply: land the latest or named staged artifact
• /gate reject: discard the latest or named staged artifact
• /gate rollback: restore the latest or named rollback checkpoint

What to expect:

• Gate stays empty until a run produces a staged artifact
• applying a change can create a rollback checkpoint
• rollback only helps if a checkpoint exists

See Governance And Verification for the details.

Research Lane

Research is where you collect evidence and feed it back into active work.

Typical flow:

1. run /research
2. inspect the saved result set
3. use /research pin for anything you want kept in context
4. use /context build when you want a bounded package of session context plus pinned evidence

What to expect:

• research can still work even if browser-backed capture is unavailable
• MCP and browser capture improve the result when configured

Recall Lane

Recall is for saved work, not for new work.

Use it to:

• resume a saved branch
• export or share a branch
• replay a branch timeline
• inspect previous work before continuing

Typical commands:

• /recall
• /resume
• /export
• /share

See Sessions And Continuity.

Control Lane

Control is the operations surface inside the product.

Use it to:

• connect xAI
• inspect runtime readiness
• change permission mode
• inspect MCP and browser state
• inspect harness and bench status

Typical commands:

• /connect
• /status
• /trust
• /harness
• /bench

Mission Panel

The Mission panel lives inside Work.

Use it to:

• create a mission
• start, pause, or resume a mission run
• inspect mission progress without leaving your main working lane

Useful commands:

• /mission
• /mission create
• /mission start
• /mission pause
• /mission resume

Models, Profiles, And Reasoning In The TUI

Use:

• /model to pick the xAI model
• /profile to pick a routing profile
• /think or /thinking when the current model exposes a user-facing reasoning selector

Important behavior:

• some xAI models manage reasoning internally
• multi-agent depth is controlled through research profiles
• if a model family uses reasoning/non-reasoning variants, the TUI exposes that as a toggle instead of a free-form effort control

Things That Are Present But Limited

• /voice exists, but voice input is unavailable in the xAI-only build
• browser-backed research can be partially or fully unavailable depending on runtime state
• some advanced panels stay sparse until you actually create sessions, artifacts, runs, or memory

Use Troubleshooting when a lane looks empty and you are not sure whether that is normal.