Manage personas in Grok Build

Personas are behavioral overlays for subagents — tone, focus, and contracts. They do not add shell or edit tools. Official: Subagents and Modes and Commands.

Open the manager

In a Build session:

/personas

/config-agents (alias /agents) manages agent definitions and personas together. Use /personas when you only need the overlay list.

Where personas live

Define them in either place the Subagents page lists:

1. User or project TOML files: ~/.grok/personas/*.toml or .grok/personas/*.toml
2. Config table: [subagents.personas] in user ~/.grok/config.toml (project .grok/config.toml only contributes MCP, plugins, and permission rules — put personas in user config or persona files)

Agent types (the child role) still live under .grok/agents/ or ~/.grok/agents/. Personas attach behavior to a type; they do not replace explore, plan, or general-purpose.

Apply them

1. Turn subagents on if you disabled them (GROK_SUBAGENTS=1 or [subagents] enabled = true). Leave unset for the docs default-on behavior.
2. Create or edit a persona with /personas.
3. Assign the persona when you spawn or configure a child (via /config-agents or the agent definition that references it).
4. Confirm discovery with grok inspect.

Full child-session setup: Use Grok Build subagents. Permission mode still comes from the parent: Configure Grok Build permissions.

Pitfalls

• Putting a persona on explore or plan does not unlock shell or edits — those types stay read/plan-only.
• Project .grok/config.toml is the wrong home for [subagents.personas]; use persona files or user config.
• Personas are Build CLI overlays. They are not consumer Voice Mode personas on grok.com.