Fix Shell Auto-review “could not be bound” with no approval card

Grok Bot rejects a local Shell command with executable content could not be bound to this review, and no usable approval card appears. Allow once does nothing. Staff on Auto-review blocks local commands (and the earlier no approval card report) call this a known pre-read failure on any host that hits the same bind path (including ChromeOS Penguin).

What fails

Before the Bot runs a command on your computer, it tries to read the program so Auto-review can show what will run. That read fails when:

• The program is a compiled binary reached by full path (/usr/bin/python3, /bin/echo)
• The first argument is a flag such as -c (python3 -c "…", bash -c "…")
• You use python3 - with a heredoc
• A ~/ path is passed into python3 or bash

The reject happens before a card, so Allow once cannot unlock it.

Workarounds that already work

Ask the Bot (or run yourself) in one of these shapes:

1. Pipe into the interpreter name (no full path, no -c):

echo "print('exec-ok')" | python3

2. File in the home folder, then run with the bare interpreter name:

python3 exec_ok.py

Staff asked reporters to try option 1 and confirm it prints exec-ok so the case matches this exact bind bug.

Avoid for now

• Full paths to binaries (/usr/bin/python3, /bin/echo)
• python3 -c, bash -c
• python3 - with a heredoc
• ~/ inside a path passed to python3 or bash

Prefer python3 / bash on PATH, a pipe, or a concrete home-directory script file.

Related

Leftover local-exec daemon issues are a different path: Fix Grok Bot local-exec daemon. Surfshark Temp delays that look like “temporarily unreachable” are covered in Exclude Surfshark Temp so Grok Bot local Shell works.

Pitfalls

• Retrying the same full-path or -c command after Allow once will keep failing until the shape changes.
• This is Auto-review’s bind failure. It is separate from a normal approval card you intentionally deny.