Modes and Commands
The TUI has pager-local slash commands, plus a smaller set provided by xai-grok-shell. User-invocable skills also appear as slash commands.
In the TUI, Shift+Tab cycles session modes.
Modes
Plan
Plan mode is for planning first. When it is active, write tools are blocked except for the session plan file.
Use it when you want Grok to sketch the approach before it starts making changes. Use /plan to view the current session plan.
Plan mode keeps the working plan visible in the TUI.
It can also stop to ask a clarifying question before edits.
Always-approve
Always-approve skips permission prompts for tool calls.
You can start in this mode with:
grok --always-approve
You can also toggle it from the TUI with /always-approve.
Permission mode in config.toml
Set the default permission behavior in ~/.grok/config.toml:
[ui]
permission_mode = "always-approve"
Use permission_mode = "ask" for prompts on each tool call, or permission_mode = "always-approve" to skip them. The default is ask. The legacy keys approval_mode and yolo = true are still accepted but permission_mode takes precedence.
Put this in ~/.grok/config.toml, not project-scoped .grok/config.toml.
For the full set of config.toml options, see Settings.
Core TUI commands
The command palette groups session, context, model, and tool actions.
Use /context to check current context usage.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/always-approve |
Toggle always-approve mode |
/btw <question> |
Ask a side question without interrupting |
/compact [context] |
Compact conversation history |
/compact-mode |
Toggle denser UI layout |
/context |
View context usage |
/feedback [text] |
Send feedback about the current session |
/fork |
Fork the current session into a new one |
/home |
Return to the welcome screen |
/hooks |
Open the unified extensions modal at the Hooks tab |
/logout |
Sign out of the current account |
/mcps |
Open the unified extensions modal at the MCP tab |
/model <name> |
Switch the active model |
/multiline |
Toggle multiline input |
/new |
Start a new session |
/plan |
View the current session plan |
/plugins |
Open the unified extensions modal at the Plugins tab |
/quit (alias /exit) |
Quit the application |
/rename <title> |
Rename the current session |
/resume |
Resume a previous session |
/rewind |
Rewind to an earlier point in the conversation |
/session-info |
Show session info |
/sessions |
Browse and pick from past sessions |
/share |
Share the current session via URL |
/skills |
Open the unified extensions modal at the Skills tab |
/theme [name] |
Switch the color theme |
/usage |
Show token and credit usage for the session |
/hooks, /plugins, /skills, and /mcps all open the same extensions modal — they just pre-select a tab.
Shell-provided commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/dream |
Trigger an offline memory-consolidation pass |
/flush |
Flush conversation memory to disk now |
/imagine <prompt> |
Generate an image from text |
/imagine-video <prompt> |
Generate a video from text |
/memory |
Search and edit persistent memory entries |
Skills as commands
Any user-invocable skill can also appear as a slash command, for example /<skill-name>.
If names collide, use the qualified form, such as /local:commit.