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Use skills and plugins in Grok Build

use-skills-and-plugins-in-grok-build

Use skills and plugins in Grok Build

Skills are reusable folders with markdown instructions, scripts, and resources. Plugins package skills plus agents, hooks, MCP servers, and LSP servers. Official Build docs also cover marketplaces and Claude Code / AGENTS.md compatibility.

Where skills load from

Grok discovers skills from:

  • ./.grok/skills/ (walked up to the repo root)
  • ~/.grok/skills/
  • Any enabled plugin’s skills/ directory
  • Extra paths under [skills] paths in ~/.grok/config.toml

User-invocable skills appear as slash commands. Each skill folder starts with SKILL.md YAML frontmatter:

Field Description
name Identifier (directory name if omitted)
description What it does and when to use it
when-to-use Extra trigger phrases (when_to_use alias)
paths Gitignore globs; hidden until a matching file is touched
allowed-tools Does not grant or restrict tools
argument-hint Slash-command autocomplete hint
user-invocable Show as a slash command (default true; only literal true counts)
disable-model-invocation Slash command only; no automatic invoke
metadata String map; author and short-description show in the UI

Grok accepts model, effort, license, and compatibility keys and does not apply them. Extra keys are ignored.

Plugins and the extensions modal

Plugins load from ./.grok/plugins/, ~/.grok/plugins/, marketplace installs under ~/.grok/plugins/marketplaces/, [plugins] paths, and --plugin-dir on the CLI.

Open the extensions modal with /plugins, /hooks, /skills, or /mcps to manage plugins, hooks, skills, and MCP servers in one place. For hook script contracts and trust, follow Use Grok Build hooks. Wire MCP servers with Add MCP servers in Grok Build.

Marketplaces

The TUI Marketplace tab browses and installs plugins from configured sources. Sources come from [[marketplace.sources]] in ~/.grok/config.toml and ~/.grok/plugins/known_marketplaces.json.

Compatibility paths

Grok reads Claude Code marketplaces, plugins, skills, MCPs, agents, hooks, and instruction files (CLAUDE.md, Claude.md, CLAUDE.local.md, .claude/rules/) alongside .grok/ with zero extra setup. It also walks the AGENTS.md family from cwd to repo root, and discovers user-level skills and commands from ~/.agents/skills/ and ~/.agents/commands/.

Custom agent types for plugins and subagents live under Use Grok Build subagents.

Pitfalls