Grok is one assistant with several doors. This lesson is which door you open, and why that choice is part of the work.
Why this matters
People lose the first hour of a new model to the wrong surface. They ask a shop question inside a public stream. They try to attach a PDF from a phone in a parking lot. They start three accounts and then cannot find the thread they liked.
The model is the same family across grok.com, the Grok apps, and Grok on X. The job is not. A desk thread can hold files, a long argument, Search, Imagine, and a name you will recognize next Tuesday. A phone thread can see the room and hear you talk. Grok on X lives next to the feed. That is a different social contract than a private work chat.
If you do not name the surface, you will treat every reply as if it came from the same desk. It did not.
Teach
Treat Grok as one account, several surfaces. Sign in on grok.com. Install the iOS or Android app from the store listing named Grok, published by xAI — not a look-alike. If you already use X, Grok on X is a third door, not a backup of the first two.
grok.com is the desk. Use it when you need a keyboard, a file, a long thread, Fast vs Think, Search, or Imagine. This is where you will do most of Pathway A. Name the thread after the job, not after the date.
The iOS and Android apps are the field. Voice and live camera live here. You can still type, attach a photo, and pick up a desk thread if you are on the same account. Use the phone when the thing you need to talk about is in front of you, or when your hands are not free.
Grok on X is in the stream. Fine for a quick public or in-app ask. A poor home for a client brief, a PDF, or anything you would not put on a postcard. Do not build a project there and hope it migrates cleanly to your desk.
A few boundaries that save pain:
- Grok the assistant is not Grok Build. Build is the coding product — terminal, repos, diffs. That is Pathway C. If you open a developer console today, you took a wrong turn.
- One login beats three memories. Use the same xAI / Grok account on the web and the apps. If X is linked, know that it is linked. Do not make a second inbox “just to try it.”
- Limits are real. Free and paid plans change what you can spend on Think, Imagine, voice, and camera. The pattern does not change: pick the surface for the job, then work inside what your plan allows. Do not wait for SuperGrok to start.
- Buttons move. xAI ships often. As of August 2026 the surfaces above are the ones that matter. Learn the job of Fast, Think, Search, Imagine, files, voice, and live camera. Do not memorize a pixel map of the composer.
A practical rule: start the job where you will finish the job. If the output is a written brief, start on grok.com even if you first noticed the problem on your phone. If the output is “what is this label,” start on the phone with the camera. You can hand a thread across surfaces later. You cannot un-send a messy start into a public stream.
When you sign in the first time, do two quiet checks. First: you can see a new conversation and send a message. Second: you can find that conversation again after you close the tab or the app. If you cannot find it, you are not signed in the way you think you are.
Worked example
A crew lead needs a one-page tailboard for a Wednesday inspection: three hazards, two hold points, one radio check. She has a photo of yesterday’s whiteboard and twenty minutes before the standup.
Wrong door: she asks Grok on X, in the middle of the feed, “write a safety briefing.” She gets a generic essay, no file, no photo, and a reply she will not find when she sits down at the shop computer.
Better door: she opens grok.com, signs in, starts a thread named Wed inspection tailboard, and writes four lines — site, date, who will read it, length. She attaches the whiteboard photo. She asks for a one-page brief she can read aloud in two minutes. That thread is the work product. Later, on the lot, she can open the same account on the phone and ask a follow-up while looking at the gate.
Notice what she did not do. She did not ask “what can you do.” She did not start a second account on her personal Gmail. She did not treat the phone and the desk as two different Groks.
Your turn
Reading this page is not the exercise. Open grok.com, sign in, and start a new thread. If you are already in an old chat, leave it.
You will make Grok interview you, then write a Surface Map you could tape to a monitor. You cannot produce the artifact without Grok’s reply in this thread.
Exercise a1-l01-e1
| Field | Value |
|---|
| whereToDo | grok.com |
| time | 12 min |
Copy-ready prompt
I am starting Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway A, lesson A1 — accounts and surfaces.
Interview me with exactly five short questions, one at a time, about:
1) whether I am on grok.com, the iOS app, the Android app, or Grok on X right now
2) which of those I can open this week
3) whether I am signed in with one account or more than one
4) one real job I will use Grok for in the next seven days
5) one thing I will not put into Grok yet (privacy, clients, or I am not ready)
After I answer all five, write a Surface Map with exactly these six labeled lines:
- Surface used for this thread:
- Other surfaces I can open this week:
- Account note (one account vs split):
- Job this week:
- Off-limits for now:
- Session stamp: include today's date and the sentence "This map was written by Grok in this thread."
Do not invent answers I did not give. If I skip a question, write "not given" on that line.
Send that. Answer the five questions honestly. If Grok dumps all five questions at once, answer them in one block and tell it to proceed.
Artifact to paste
Paste, in this order:
- Grok’s final Surface Map (the six labeled lines, including the session stamp).
- One sentence you wrote: which surface you will use as the desk this week, and why.
Do not paste the five-question interview unless a line in the map is “not given” and you need to show why.
Rubric
- Pass: The six-line map is present. The session stamp includes a date and the sentence “This map was written by Grok in this thread.” Surface used is named (grok.com, iOS, Android, or Grok on X). Your extra sentence picks a desk and gives a reason. The map does not invent a phone you said you do not have.
- Fail: A map you wrote without opening Grok. No session stamp. “I use AI for everything” as the job. Three accounts with no note. A claim you completed this on grok.com while the map says you were on X and you never corrected it.
Common failure
The common failure is collecting doors instead of picking one. New account on the phone, old account on the web, a third ask inside X, and then a screenshot of a reply you cannot search. You now have folklore, not a thread.
The fix is boring. One account. grok.com as the desk. Phone as the field kit. X as optional and public-ish. If you already made a mess, pick the account you will keep, sign the other surfaces into that one, and start a fresh thread named after this week’s job.
What’s next
You have a door and a map. Next lesson: a first message that does a real job — not “hi,” not “what can you do.”
