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GROK BOT / when-local-pc-shows-offline-while-awake

When a Windows PC shows offline while it is still awake

when-local-pc-shows-offline-while-awake

Use this when your Windows PC is awake and you are at it, but Grok Bot treats that machine as away and pauses the connection Bots use to run commands. This is a known issue. Staff said there is no setting to turn it off. No release is documented as a fix. Checked Oct 16, 2026.

Cursor staff (kevinn) said on forum thread 174267 on Oct 10, 2026 that the app pauses the connection your bots use to run commands when it thinks nobody is at the computer. The app treats the computer as away when any of these happens: the screen locks, the PC goes to sleep, or the Grok Bot window stops being the active window. Clicking into another app counts, including a browser with grok.com open. There is not a setting to turn this off.

Staff's interim: keep the Grok Bot window active, message from your phone or another device, and click the Grok Bot window on that PC.

Related staff notes (174223)

Cursor staff (deanrie) on forum thread 174223 described the same “away” park after about 10 minutes without window focus, or on screen lock, and said the helper does not start again automatically. On Oct 13, 2026, deanrie said they cannot confirm that version 0.70.2 fully fixes the issue. On Oct 11 they split always-foreground and Linux cases off as a separate variation.

Changelog v0.70.2 says: switching chats or focusing the window no longer wakes a sleeping computer. That line is about not waking a sleeping machine. It does not claim to fix away-park or “offline while awake.” Do not say 0.70.2, or any release, fixed this. A user on the thread said they were told it was fixed with 0.70.2. Staff could not confirm that.

What you can do today

These are staff interim steps and user workarounds. They are not a fix. Staff said there is no setting that turns the away check off.

  1. Click the Grok Bot window on that PC so it is the active window before you need local commands.
  2. Keep that window in front while the Bot needs the PC. Clicking another app, including a browser with grok.com, counts as away.
  3. Message from your phone or another device if you need the Bot while that PC's window is not focused.
  4. If the screen locked or the PC slept, unlock it, click the Grok Bot window, and try the command again.

User-reported workarounds such as Tailscale or an auto bring-to-front script are not fixes. Do not treat them as product settings.

This is a different failure from a local Shell that is connected but times out: Fix local PC “connected” but Shell says temporarily unreachable. It is also different from a Mac helper that empties ListMachines after idle: Fix Grok Bot when ListMachines is empty but Settings still lists the Mac.

Related

Pitfalls

  • Looking for a setting that disables away-park. Staff said there isn't one.
  • Saying 0.70.2 fixed it. Staff could not confirm that, and the changelog line is about not waking a sleeping computer.
  • Treating Tailscale, auto bring-to-front, or “keep the window focused” as a fix. Those are workarounds or interim steps.