Two connections

Connection	What it does	Required?
Workhorse Link	Lets Grok Bot call the desk through MCP or the `workhorse` command. The local watcher also carries queued Grok Bot messages.	Yes, for Grok Bot to call the desk
Instant replies	Lets the desk wake Grok Bot as soon as you send it a message.	No. Finish it now or later.

You can use the first without ever setting up the second. The desk's own write-up is GROK-BOT.md; Link's contract is LINK.md.

Workhorse Link and the watcher

In the desk, open Settings → LLMs → Workhorse Link and choose Connect Grok Bot. It copies one set of launch and install instructions for this computer — paste them into Grok Bot once. That connects the MCP tools and the local workhorse command without adding another vendor or sharing a subscription. After that, Grok Bot can read and ask chats, check capacity, and delegate work; the watcher carries queued messages even when instant replies are not configured.

Instant chat: the webhook walkthrough

The walkthrough, recorded as it ran: the bot builds the routine, the panel opens, and POST to + key are selected and copied. The key on screen is dead.

Pick the bot. In Grok Bot's sidebar, click the bot you are connecting.
Let the bot build the routine. Ask it for an active routine named Workhorse that runs when a webhook fires, answering pending desk requests through the workhorse command. When it lands, the chat shows a Created routine · Workhorse line. (You can also build it by hand: the panel at the top right, a new routine, and a webhook under When to run.)
Open the routine. Click the button at the top right of the window and pick the routine — the Created routine line in the chat opens the same panel.
Check the toggle. Active, at the top of the Routine panel, must be on.
Open the webhook. Under When to run, click When a webhook fires. It opens two fields: POST to, the webhook URL, and key.
Copy both, carefully. Click a field and it selects its whole value — copy it, then the other. The key is a secret: whoever holds the pair can fire this routine.
Check the routine. Click Test run; Run history shows the run with a check. An empty pending list is normal.
Connect the desk. Open Settings → LLMs → Grok Bot → Finish instant chat, paste POST to and key, and choose Connect instant replies.

The installed workhorse command validates every reply against a matching, still-pending request and writes it atomically — a routine cannot write an arbitrary inbox path or replace a different answer. If the pair ever stops working, the URL and key belong to that one webhook: delete the routine or re-add its webhook, then paste the fresh pair into the desk.

Grok Bot as a bot on the desk

Add a bot ships a Grok Bot preset: a local OpenAI-compatible shim on 127.0.0.1, model grok-bot. It is not Grok 4.6 — Grok over ACP stays a separate vendor with its own login, and Grok Bot is not a fifth stock vendor.
Each install mints its own loopback token; completions refuse any other caller, and the port binds loopback only. The connection fails closed when the shim is down.
Auto routing may call it to analyze and dispatch, but does not allocate it as an orchestration or builder worker.
Its weekly ring reads a leftover file Grok Bot itself keeps current; a missing, invalid, or older-than-30-minute reading stays unknown. The desk never writes that file.
The webhook pair lives in grok-bot-wake.json under the desk's own data folder — a different secret from the loopback token. Neither goes in git or in Grok Bot memory.