The desk has tools. A thread is the folder. If you chat without Search, files, or a name, you are working from memory — yours and the model’s.
Why this matters
Grok can talk fluently about a world that has moved. It can also “remember” a document you never attached. And it can draw a picture you did not need.
Search, Imagine, and files are how you stop that. Search reaches the live web and public posts on X. Files put your source in the thread. Imagine is for a picture that communicates faster than a paragraph — a layout, a labeled diagram, a reference frame — not a decoration.
The thread is what keeps those three from becoming three toys. One job, one conversation, a name you can find on Thursday.
Teach
Search when the world may have moved. Training data is not a newspaper. If the answer depends on a date, a price, a law, a weather window, a product limit, or “what did they actually say,” turn Search on (or ask Grok to search) and require sources. A good Search ask names the question and what would count as a source.
Search the live web (and X if the claim is public there).
Question: [one question]
Must return:
- a direct answer in 5 lines
- 3 sources with titles and URLs
- the date on each source if you can see one
- one line: what is still uncertain
Do not cite a page you did not use.
If Grok answers from memory and slaps a URL on the end, push back: “Open or search again. Quote six words from each source.” You are not being rude. You are refusing a costume.
Do not Search a question you already have the file for. The file is the source.
Files when you have the source. On grok.com, attach with the control next to the composer, or drop the file on the thread. As of 2026 you can attach many files on the web; start with one. A one-page .txt or a PDF of this job beats a 40-page dump.
Tell Grok what to do with the file. “Summarize” is a last resort.
Read the attached file. Use only what is in it plus my constraints.
Extract: [the thing you need]
Quote the line you used for any number.
If the file does not contain it, write "not in file."
Do not upload other people’s private records, credentials, or a document you would not leave on a shop table. Strip names if you have to.
Imagine when a picture is the artifact. Imagine on grok.com makes images (and, if you go looking, short video). For this pathway, make a useful still: a simple labeled diagram, a before/after layout, a card the crew can recognize. Prompt like a brief, not like a movie.
Imagine a simple, flat diagram, not a photograph.
Show: [3–6 labeled parts]
Orientation: [top view / side view]
No logos, no readable faces, no fake brand names.
Labels in plain English, large enough to read on a phone.
If the image is pretty and unlabeled, it failed. Ask for a second frame with bigger type. Do not spend this lesson on cinematic video or likeness of a real person. That is a later module.
Threads hold the job. Name the conversation after the artifact: north gate plan, Friday parent note, invoice 4417. Keep Search hits, the file, and the image in that thread so the next follow-up can see them. New job, new thread. Do not run Imagine in a thread about payroll because you were already there.
A simple desk order that works: attach the file → Search only the fact the file cannot know → write the artifact → Imagine only if a picture would travel with it. Fast is enough for the extraction. Think if the artifact will be acted on without you.
Worked example
A lead has a one-page field note (times, gate, two hazards) and needs a Monday plan plus a diagram the truck can glance at.
- She starts a thread
Mon north-gate plan.
- She drops
north-gate-notes.txt and extracts times and hazards with “not in file” as the escape hatch. Grok invents a third hazard; she makes it retract.
- She Searches one live question the note cannot answer: whether the county road is listed closed this weekend. She demands three sources. If Search is thin, she writes “uncertain” and plans a phone call. She does not let Grok guess the road is fine.
- She writes a 12-line plan from the file + the Search line.
- She Imagines a top-view diagram: road, gate, truck parking, inspector lane, two labels for hazards. No photoreal crew. No fake logo.
One thread. Three tools. A plan she can defend. That is the desk.
Your turn
You will do one job in one new grok.com thread with all three tools. Prepare a file before you open Grok: a .txt or PDF you wrote, half a page to one page, about a real place or process you know. Shopping lists and song lyrics fail. Course examples fail.
If Imagine is limited on your plan, still send the Imagine prompt and paste whatever Grok returns (including a limit message). The Search and file steps are not optional.
Exercise a3-l02-e1
| Field | Value |
|---|
| whereToDo | grok.com |
| time | 20 min |
Prep (2 minutes, not in Grok)
Create desk-notes.txt (or a PDF) with:
- a title
- a place or process
- at least four facts, including one number (a time, a count, a length)
- one fact you deliberately leave out (you will Search that instead)
Copy-ready prompts
Start a new thread. Name it after the job. Attach the file. Then send these three messages in order.
Message 1 — file:
Read the attached file only.
1) Restate the title and the place or process.
2) List every number in the file, each with a short quote.
3) Write "not in file:" and name one operational fact a lead would still need.
Do not invent numbers. If you are guessing, say so.
Message 2 — Search (turn Search on if you have a control; otherwise tell Grok to search the live web):
Search the live web. The file cannot answer this:
[your one live question — must need a current source]
Return:
- 5-line answer
- 3 sources (title, URL, date if shown)
- a 6-word quote from each source
- "uncertain:" one line
If you cannot find sources, say so. Do not invent URLs.
Message 3 — artifact + Imagine:
Using only the file facts and the Search result, write a 12-line working brief for a person who was not in this thread.
Then generate an Imagine still: a simple labeled diagram of the place or process, top or side view, 4–6 labels, no logos, no readable faces, no photoreal people.
After the image, write a Thread Receipt:
- Thread name I should use:
- File fact used (quote a number):
- Search fact used (source title):
- Imagine what it shows (one line):
- Session stamp: today's date and "Thread receipt written by Grok in this thread."
Artifact to paste
- The Thread Receipt.
- The 12-line brief.
- The three Search sources (titles + URLs).
- A one-line description of the image (or the exact limit message if Imagine would not run).
- The filename you attached.
Rubric
- Pass: Receipt is Grok-stamped. A number in the receipt matches a number you put in the file. Three sources look like real URLs, or Grok clearly said it could not find them (and you did not invent replacements). The brief does not include a fact you never supplied. You named a file you actually attached.
- Fail: No file. No Search. An image-only submission. Sources without URLs and without a failure statement. A receipt you typed after reading this lesson. Three tools in three unrelated chats.
Common failure
The common failure is tool tourism. A Search about a celebrity, an Imagine of a dragon, a random PDF, three different threads. You touched every control and practiced nothing.
The other failure is Search as decoration. Grok writes from memory, then adds https://example.com or a homepage that does not contain the claim. If you cannot imagine highlighting the sentence on that page, the citation is a prop. Ask for the six-word quote. If it cannot produce one, the fact is not sourced.
What’s next
The desk is set. Module A4 is the phone: voice and live camera in the room you are standing in, then share and sync so the field thread and the desk thread are the same work.
