Each chat lives in its own editor tab (like a document). The left activity bar is a launcher: recent sessions (up to 7), status dots, rename/delete, and New session. Full history and search live in the chat tab’s history popover. You can keep several chats open and switch between them like any other tabs.

Closing a tab stops that chat’s live process but keeps history on disk (unless it was an empty “new session” you never used). After a VS Code reload, tabs can restore; the visible tab reconnects first.

A new empty session shows a short value prop and starter cards, for example:

A Create a document row lives in the activity-bar launcher (under New session), with icons for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, CSV, and Markdown. Click one to open (or reuse an empty) session and fill the composer with Create <type>: — finish the sentence and send.

Power users can ignore the cards and type immediately.

Thin-client Studio surfaces (not a separate Office app, not five permanent sidebar tabs):

• Business tasks on the empty-session welcome screen (invoice, receipt, weekly report, pitch deck, approval workflow) — each seeds the composer for you to edit; nothing is sent until you press Send.
• Docs (chat top bar) — browse a capped list of business documents already in the workspace; open, reveal in the OS, attach as context, or seed a path into the composer.
• Templates (activity-bar left nav, under Create a document) — ~14 searchable business templates; click a row to seed a fill-ready prompt. The list fills the space down to Recent history. Real files still come from Grok CLI skills (/docx, /pptx, /xlsx, …) and ordinary file tools.

When a turn produces a document path, a document card still offers Copy path / Open / Reveal.

From the launcher's Create a document row, pick a document-type icon (or ask in plain language / use /docx, /pptx, /xlsx from autocomplete). When a tool result includes a document path, Grokbit shows a document card with Copy path, Open (editor for Markdown/CSV/text; system default app for Office/PDF), and Reveal in file explorer.

This is not a built-in Office suite: generation uses Grok’s skills and tools on your machine (some skills need local deps such as Node’s docx package). Attach an existing file as a chip to edit it.

Your last non-plan mode (Agent or Auto accept) is remembered for new sessions. Plan first is always a deliberate choice for the task at hand.

When Grok proposes an edit, the diff is shown inside the chat card — green additions, red deletions, long unchanged stretches collapsed. Buttons use plain language:

• Allow this change — approve once
• Allow always — approve this kind of action for the rest of the session (when the CLI offers it)
• Don't allow — reject

The file is written only after you approve. Past edits stay reviewable via view diff on the tool row. Diffs never open a separate editor tab (so focus stays on chat).

Sometimes Grok needs a choice from you (multiple options). An inline question card appears; pick an option (and Submit if there are several questions). After you answer, the card collapses to a green “✓ your choice” summary. On resume, past answers replay as read-only cards.

• The active editor can be included automatically as context (setting: grok.includeActiveFileByDefault).
• Drag files from the Explorer, right-click → Grokbit: Send File, press Alt+G, or use the + button to attach files.
• Explicit attachments are stronger than the ambient “currently open” file.
• Hold Shift while dragging to embed file contents as a fenced block instead of a path reference.

The clock icon (and the launcher) lists this project’s sessions, newest first:

• Click a row to resume (conversation, images, plans, and tools replay).
• Hover to rename or delete.
• Search filters by name across your whole history.
• The list loads 100 at a time and loads more as you scroll (stays fast with thousands of sessions).
• Clear all history removes every session for this project except ones that still have an open tab.

Unread green/red badges persist across reloads until you open that session.

A native status bar item (bottom of VS Code) mirrors the active chat: model, thinking depth, mode, context %, working spinner, and a bell count when any session needs you. Click it to jump back to chat.

Optional setting grok.notifyWhenWaiting (off by default): a passive notification when a background tab needs you — it never steals focus; you choose Go to session.

Type /imagine <description> (or /imagine-video <description>) and results render inline in the chat. Hover for Copy path / Open in VS Code. Subscription-only Grok features; they survive session resume. Editing a reference photo with /imagine is supported when the CLI offers it.

The microphone in the composer records speech via xAI Speech-to-Text. Words appear live as you talk. Say your send phrase (default “grok send”) to submit hands-free.

Needs: ffmpeg on PATH + a separate API key (grok.voiceApiKey or env). Cost: pay-as-you-go STT (~$0.10/hr batch, ~$0.20/hr streaming) — not covered by SuperGrok alone. Details: research/voice-input.md.

While Grok works, each turn's activity rolls into one compact carousel strip instead of a scrolling list: the strip shows the current action (Reading chat.js…, Running command…) with a step counter, and ‹ › flips back through earlier steps. When the turn finishes it collapses to a one-line summary — e.g. Explored 5 items, edited 2 files · 9 steps — that expands to the full detail (tool rows, step narration, thinking). Commands can show output, failed tools turn red with a short reason, and a files changed strip above the composer summarizes applied edits this turn. Prefer the classic scrolling stream? Turn off grok.compactActivity (gear → Config & debug → Compact activity view).

Pick the model and reasoning effort (none → xhigh) from the gear menu or the small model chip in the toolbar. Effort is how deeply Grok “thinks” (more depth = more tokens/time). Changing effort restarts the session (optional summarize-and-restart). Some model switches restart when the CLI requires a different agent type — the extension handles that.

• grok.showThinking (default off) — when off, a short Thinking… stand-in is shown instead of full reasoning traces. Toggle live under gear → Config & debug → Show thinking details.
• grok.chatFontScale — zoom only the Grok chat (60–300%), not the whole editor.

• LaTeX math renders via MathJax (offline). Hover a display equation to copy or export PNG/SVG.
• Mermaid diagrams render inline (offline, theme-aware). Hover to copy source or export.
• Normal markdown (code, lists, tables) is fully supported.

Type / in the composer for autocomplete from your installed CLI (e.g. /imagine, /compact, …). Snapshot: docs/SLASH-COMMANDS.md.

The context donut shows how full the conversation window is. Use /compact (gear → Compact) to compress history, or start a new session. Lower thinking depth for cheaper/faster turns.

Extra tools (browser automation, etc.) are configured in the CLI (~/.grok/config.toml or project .grok/config.toml). Gear → Connected tools (MCP) / open config files, then start a new session to reload.

Gear → Log out, or command Grokbit: Log Out — runs grok logout, closes live session tabs, and shows the signed-out launcher. History stays on disk; sign in again to resume.

Anonymous usage only: one session_start per real conversation with install id + mode/model/effort — never message content, code, or paths. Off with grok.telemetry.enabled: false or VS Code’s global telemetry setting. See docs/privacy.md.

Also listed in-app: gear → Keyboard shortcuts.

npm install
npm test         # grok-free unit/DOM/integration suite — same as CI
npm run package  # → grokbit-<version>.vsix

npm test never spawns the real grok binary. A separate npm run test:live exercises the real CLI before releases. See TESTS.md and docs/architecture.md.