How Do You Turn a Grok Bot Task Into a Weekly Routine?

What is the difference between a skill and a routine?

According to xAI’s skills and routines page, a skill is a reusable set of instructions for how to do a task, shared by all your bots. A routine tells one bot when to run a workflow, on a schedule or, where supported, after an event. Routines keep running while your laptop is closed.

How do you save a skill?

Finish a task you are happy with, then ask the bot to save it. Name what to keep.

Save the process we just used as a skill called "Monday hiring signals".
Include: the role families and regions, the sources to check, the scoring rules, the output format, and how to handle missing data.
Include the rule that outreach is only ever drafted and always needs my approval.

xAI says a useful skill states when to use it, the inputs and access it needs, the sequence of work, how to validate the result, what to return and what needs approval. Type / in the desktop composer to call a saved skill.

If the Teach a task control is available in your app, you can instead record one browser workflow, up to ten minutes, and the bot drafts a skill from it. Rollout is gradual, and xAI advises adding decision rules and approval limits to the draft, since one example will not cover them.

How do you create a weekly routine?

1. Ask the bot that should own the job.
2. State the schedule and the time zone.
3. Name the input source and the format of the result.
4. State what to do when a source is missing.
5. State the approval boundary.

Every Monday at 7:30 AM Eastern, run the "Monday hiring signals" skill.
Post the ranked list here with a source link for every signal.
Do not contact anyone or add anyone to a sequence.
If a source is unavailable, say which one and report the gap instead of using old data.

How do you test it before it runs on its own?

Use Test run after you create or edit a routine. xAI warns that a test run does real work: it can browse sites, change files and call connected tools, so use safe inputs and keep write actions behind approval. Check that it used current inputs, matched the format, gave a source for every action, stopped where you told it to and reported failures clearly.

What are the limits?

• A bot can own up to 50 routines, and the app keeps the 20 most recent run records for each.
• Deleting a routine takes effect at once and cannot be undone. Deleting a bot deletes its routines.
• After a long absence the app may ask whether to keep routines running and pause them if you do not answer, so check for paused routines when you return.
• Broad event triggers such as “every new message” create noise and use your allowance. Use narrow matching rules.

Which recruiting routines are worth building?

Start with jobs that end in a list you read, not an action taken for you: a Monday hiring signals list, a daily digest of new applicants, a weekly list of quiet candidates with a draft nudge for each, or a monthly clean up report for your CRM. Our recruiting automation recipes walk through four of these step by step, and the scheduled tasks lesson compares how ChatGPT, Claude and Grok handle timers.

Quick answers

Should I automate sending?

No. xAI’s own advice is to keep sending, publishing, purchasing, deleting and production changes behind approval, and to automate preparation first.

What if a site changes and the routine breaks?

Re-test after a website, connector or source format changes, and pause the routine until you have.