Fix Grok Project instructions that do not stick

A Grok Project is a workspace with its own chats, files, and instructions. When replies ignore the brief you saved, the usual causes are the wrong host, a chat started outside the Project, or instructions left only in a one-off message.

Use grok.com in Chromium

xAI’s FAQ says to use grok.com in a standard Chrome or Chromium browser. Some hosts such as grok.x.ai miss features like Projects. If the sidebar has no Projects entry:

1. Open grok.com and sign in with the account that owns the Project.
2. Go to grok.com/project or open Projects from the sidebar.
3. Create or select the Project before you chat.

Put instructions on the Project, then chat inside it

1. Open the Project.
2. Add Project instructions (tone, audience, hard constraints) in the Project’s instruction field. A pasted message in a random chat does not count as Project instructions.
3. Upload the PDFs, sheets, or code the Project should keep referencing.
4. Start new chats from inside that Project. Threads opened from the global chat list do not automatically inherit Project files and instructions.

Ask against the uploads the same way you would in a normal chat: summarize, extract a table, compare two docs, or draft from the brief. See Create a Grok Project.

When memory across chats still fails

Project instructions and files are the durable workspace layer. Account-level Grok memory is a separate control — see Manage Grok memory. Turning memory on does not replace Project instructions, and Project instructions do not replace Build’s AGENTS.md rules (those are for Grok Build / CLI).

If an old Project chat fails to open, triage with Fix “error loading” old Grok chats before rewriting instructions.

Team Projects

On Grok Business / Enterprise, sharing and retention policies for projects are set in console.x.ai under Sharing & Retention. Org policy can limit who sees a Project; that is an admin setting, not a missing instruction toggle on your personal chat.

Pitfalls

• A message that says “always do X” in one thread does not become Project instructions for the next thread.
• Wrong account or wrong host looks identical to “instructions ignored.”
• Grok Build project rules (AGENTS.md) are a different product surface — see Make Grok Build follow your AGENTS.md.