| name | grok-prompting |
| description | How to shape a good prompt before delegating to Grok via the grok-rescue subagent or /grok-cc:rescue. Use when tightening a vague user request into a crisp Grok task. Covers stating the goal, constraints, acceptance criteria, and scope so a one-shot headless Grok run succeeds. |
Grok prompting
Grok runs the delegated task in a single headless pass — there is no
back-and-forth to clarify. The prompt has to carry everything Grok needs. Shape
the user's request into a crisp task before forwarding it; do not do the task
yourself.
What a good Grok task prompt contains
- The goal, in one sentence. What should be true when Grok is done.
- Where to work. Name the directory, package, or files when known. Grok
starts from the run's
cwd and reads from there.
- Constraints. What it may and may not touch; conventions to follow;
anything to leave alone.
- Acceptance criteria. How Grok (and the user) will know it worked — "tests
pass", "tsc clean", "the endpoint returns 200", a specific behavior.
- Done-ness. For a write task, ask for the edits plus a short summary of
what changed. For a read task, ask for the specific answer/finding format.
Keep it tight
- Prefer concrete nouns (file paths, function names, error text) over vague
description. Paste the actual error, not a paraphrase.
- State the outcome, not a step-by-step procedure — let Grok plan the steps.
- One task per run. Bundle only tightly-related changes.
- Pick the mode deliberately: write-capable (default) to make changes,
--read for review/diagnosis/research with no edits.
- Reach for
--effort high on genuinely hard problems; leave it default
otherwise. Use --check when correctness matters more than latency.
Anti-patterns
- Don't forward a one-word ask ("fix it") — add the goal and acceptance check.
- Don't include routing flags (
--read, --effort, …) inside the task text;
they are controls, not instructions for Grok.
- Don't ask Grok to do exploratory work the main thread should just do itself —
delegate substantial, bounded tasks, not trivial lookups.
