# Routines A routine tells one Bot when to run a workflow. It can run on a schedule, or when something happens, such as a Slack message, a GitHub, Linear, Sentry, or PagerDuty event, an email, or a webhook call. Routines run in the cloud while your laptop is closed. ## How do I set up or change a routine? Ask the Bot in chat. Say what it should do and when. For example: "Every weekday at 9:00 AM, summarize new support tickets in this chat." The Bot creates the routine, and it appears in the Bot's routines. To change a routine on desktop, open it and choose **Edit**. Grok Bot starts a message to the Bot that begins "Edit your routine:" with the routine's name. Add what should change, then send it. On the phone, open the Bot's profile and tap **Add routine** under **Routines**. Grok Bot starts a message that begins "Set up a routine to ". Finish the sentence and send it. ## Where do I see a Bot's routines? On desktop: 1. Click the Bot's name at the top of the chat to open its details. 2. Choose **Tasks**. Routines are under **Routines**. Each row shows the routine's name and when it runs, or **Paused**. Use the switch on the row to pause or resume it. If the Bot has no routines, you see **Ask in chat to set a routine**. Click a routine to open it: - **Instruction** is what the Bot does on each run. - **When to run** lists the schedule and the events that start it. - **Webhook** shows the URL and key, for a routine that a webhook call starts. The buttons at the bottom are **Pause** or **Resume**, **Test**, **Edit**, and **Delete routine** (the trash icon). Deleting asks you to confirm. It stops future runs and can't be undone. On the phone, open the Bot's profile and find **Routines**. Tap a routine to see **Active**, **Schedule**, **Next run**, **Instruction**, and **Run history**. Turn off **Active** to pause the routine. To delete one, swipe the routine's row. ## How do schedules and time zones work? Schedules use the time zone in **Settings**, under **Bot**, labeled **Timezone**. **Auto-detect** follows this computer. Pick a zone when the routine should follow a different one, such as the office where the work belongs. ![The Bot section in Grok Bot's General settings, with the Timezone menu set to Auto-detect](/docs-static/images/grok-bot/settings-bot-section-light.png) Ask for a schedule in plain words, like "every weekday at 8:00 AM" or "every 2 hours". Then open the routine and check **When to run**. It shows the saved schedule in words, so you can confirm it matches what you meant. If it doesn't, choose **Edit** and tell the Bot what to fix. A new routine waits for its next scheduled time. It doesn't run when it's created. If you set up "every day at 8:00 AM" at 8:05, the first run is tomorrow at 8:00 AM. To try it right away, use **Test**. ## How do I test a routine? Open the routine on desktop and choose **Test**. The button says **Running…** until the run finishes. The result shows up in the Bot's chat. A test does real work. It can change files and use connected plugins. Use a safe input. If the test can't start, you see **Couldn't start a test run**, or a message that explains why. Some routines don't show **Test**. They still run on their schedule or trigger. ## What should I change if usage drops quickly? Start with how often your routines run. Each run spends usage, so a routine that runs often spends more than one that runs rarely. An hourly schedule, a short interval, or a Slack trigger on a busy channel can use a week of usage in a day. If **Weekly usage** is falling faster than you expect, pause routines you don't need. Then ask the Bot to widen schedules and narrow Slack triggers before you raise a plan or an on-demand limit. A routine that never runs doesn't spend usage. **Test** does, because it performs the work. See [Plans and billing](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/plans.md) for weekly usage and the on-demand monthly limit. ## How do Slack triggers work? A Slack trigger is part of a routine, not the Slack plugin. The plugin lets a Bot post and read as the Slack user you connected. A trigger starts the routine when something happens in Slack. Connect Slack on the Cursor account that owns the Bot before you rely on it. See [Connect plugins](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/connect-plugins.md#what-can-a-plugin-do). Ask the Bot for the trigger you want. A routine can start when the Bot is mentioned, when a word or phrase is mentioned, when you react to a message, or on any message. It can watch one channel or all of Slack. **When to run** shows the trigger in words, such as a phrase and a channel. Keep the channel and phrase narrow. A trigger on any message in a busy channel runs often and spends usage on messages that don't need the Bot. Only new activity counts. Messages from before the trigger existed don't start a run. ## Where do the webhook URL and key live, and what does a 200 mean? Ask the Bot to add a webhook trigger to the routine. Then open the routine on desktop. The **Webhook** section shows three fields: - **POST to** is the URL. - **key** is the secret. Senders include it as `Authorization: Bearer `. - **header** is that full header, ready to copy. Click a field to copy it. Send an HTTP POST to that URL with the header. You can send a JSON body. The Bot receives that body with the routine instruction. A response of **200** means Grok Bot accepted the call and started a run. It does not mean the Bot has finished the instruction. Check the Bot's chat for the result. Any other response means a run did not start. Confirm the routine isn't paused and that the request uses the current key. ## Why hasn't my routine run? Check these first: - The routine isn't **Paused**. On the phone, **Active** is on. - **When to run** shows the schedule or trigger you expect, in the right time zone. - A new schedule waits for its next time. Use **Test** to run it now. - For Slack, the message is new, in the channel the trigger watches, and matches its phrase. - For a webhook, the call returned **200** and used the current key. On the phone, **Run history** shows each recent run as **Running**, **Succeeded**, or **Failed**. A failed run shows its reason. **No runs yet** means nothing has started the routine yet. ## Related - [Work with Grok Bot](https://cursor.com/docs/grok-bot/work.md#skills-and-routines) - [Grok Bot How Tos](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/how-to.md) - [Plans and billing](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/plans.md) - [Connect plugins](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/connect-plugins.md) - [Grok Bot on mobile](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/mobile.md) - [Get help](https://cursor.com/help/grok-bot/get-help.md) --- ## Sitemap [Overview of all docs pages](/llms.txt)