Modes and Commands

The TUI has pager-local slash commands, plus a smaller set provided by xai-grok-shell. User-invocable skills also appear as slash commands.

In the TUI, Shift+Tab cycles session modes.

Modes

Plan

Plan mode is for planning first. When it is active, write tools are blocked except for the session plan file.

Use it when you want Grok to sketch the approach before it starts making changes. Use /plan to view the current session plan.

Plan mode keeps the working plan visible in the TUI.

It can also stop to ask a clarifying question before edits.

Always-approve

Always-approve skips permission prompts for tool calls.

You can start in this mode with:

Bash

grok --always-approve

You can also toggle it from the TUI with /always-approve.

Approval in config.toml

Set the default approval behavior in ~/.grok/config.toml:

Text

[ui]
approval_mode = "always-approve"

Use approval_mode = "ask" for prompts on each tool call, or approval_mode = "always-approve" to skip them. The default is ask.

Put this in ~/.grok/config.toml, not project-scoped .grok/config.toml.

Core TUI commands

The command palette groups session, context, model, and tool actions.

Use /context to check current context usage.

CommandWhat it does
/quitQuit the application
/homeReturn to the welcome screen
/newStart a new session
/loadResume a previous session
/rename <title>Rename the current session
/shareShare the current session via URL
/session-infoShow session info
/contextView context usage
/model <name>Switch the active model
/always-approveToggle always-approve mode
/multilineToggle multiline input
/compact [context]Compact conversation history
/compact-modeToggle denser UI layout
/theme [name]Switch the color theme
/feedback [text]Send feedback about the current session
/planView the current session plan
/btw <question>Ask a side question without interrupting
/hooksOpen the hooks UI
/pluginsOpen the plugins UI
/mcpsShow MCP server status
/imagine <prompt>Generate an image from text
/imagine-video <prompt>Generate a video from text

Skills as commands

Any user-invocable skill can also appear as a slash command, for example /<skill-name>.

If names collide, use the qualified form, such as /local:commit.


Last updated: May 14, 2026