Set up Auto-review rules: ask first for anything you can't u

How this helps you

Your Bots run freely on harmless work but always stop and ask before anything you can't take back.

✦ Try it

List every kind of action you have taken for me in the last [period], grouped into: can't be undone (money, sending, publishing, deleting, my own computer) and easy to undo. For each group, suggest the Auto-review rules I should add, worded the way I would type them into Settings. Don't change any rules yourself.

Fill in: [period] is how far back to look, such as two weeks. The Bot can only suggest; you add the rules yourself in Settings (or confirm a rule card it offers).

What they did

Kacper Rutkiewicz turns on Auto-review in Settings, General (it checks each action before it runs and asks you when needed), then adds custom rules with one simple test: if the action can't be undone, the Bot must ask first; if it's harmless and fixable, allow it automatically. His Ask first list includes sending money, publishing content and running Tailscale. He then tested a conflict on purpose: 'create files in your workspace' was set to Allow automatically while 'create any file' was set to Ask first. When he asked for a new text file, the Bot stopped with an approval card, so the Ask first rule won. When he asked the Bot to add an allow rule for sending email, it refused and pointed him to the custom rules screen, because Auto-review rules can only be changed by you. In the 0.77.0 update (26 Oct) these rules moved to a Permissions section in Settings with Always Ask and Allow without Asking lists, and approval cards now stay open for 30 minutes instead of 10.

Who it's for: Everyone, and especially anyone about to connect payments, email sending or their own computer.

Before you start

A Grok Bot account with at least one Bot.
Five minutes to list the actions you would hate to see happen by mistake.

How to try it

Open Settings and turn on Auto-review (Kacper finds it under General, in the general Bot settings).
Open the rules list. Since 0.77.0 this is the Permissions section, with Always Ask and Allow without Asking lists and an Add Rule button on each.
Add Ask first (Always Ask) rules for anything you can't undo: payments and purchases, publishing, sending email or messages, running commands on your own computer.
Add Allow rules only for harmless, fixable actions, such as copying research files into a project folder.
Test a clash the way Kacper did: ask for something covered by both an allow rule and an ask rule, and check that a card appears.
Start running commands on your own computer as ask every time. Loosen it later if you are comfortable.

What to expect

A short list like: Always Ask before any payment, before posting to X, before sending email from my address; Allow without asking for creating files in the workspace. Then a card the first time a Bot tries one of the ask actions.

Common mistakes

Leaving everything on allow because cards feel annoying. One unwanted payment or post costs more than a week of taps.
Assuming a Bot can loosen its own rules. It can't; Kacper's Bot told him to change them himself.
Forgetting that all your Bots share one computer, so a login or install one Bot uses is there for every Bot.

Related tips

A safety baseline before sharing logins: All your Bots share one computer, so every Bot can use each login.
What actually stops a coding Bot (and what is only advice): Of 15 operations tested, only a merge to main hit a hard stop. Skill-file rules are only advice.
Start each day with an approvals prompt, end it with a night prompt: Two short daily questions that get your Bot to find work you forgot about.
Test your Bot against instructions hidden in email: Send your Bot's inbox two booby-trapped emails, check it ignores them, then add a house rule and a sender filter.
Clean up a messy folder safely: plan first, move after you approve: A cleaner Bot finds exact duplicates and proposes where every file goes. Nothing moves until you approve, and it checks every file is still there afterwards.