Grok's Beard

Effect-first VS Code / Cursor client for Grok Build. Named for the thing you grow while the agent works, and a nod to the prog-rock band Spock's Beard.

Created by Russell White. Published as early-effect.groks-beard.

Status: early / 0.1. Live on the Visual Studio Marketplace and Open VSX. Not a fork of the community Grok Build extension. Not affiliated with or endorsed by SpaceXAI (formerly xAI). Grok and Grok Build are trademarks of xAI; this project uses those names only to describe what it is compatible with.

Two ways to use the same Grok, on one typed core: editor chat in the sidebar, and an optional MCP sidecar for the external Grok TUI (Ghostty, iTerm, WezTerm). Shared identity is the CLI's session tree under ~/.grok/sessions/.

Install

Install the Grok Build CLI (grok) and sign in with grok login or XAI_API_KEY.
In the Extensions view, search Grok's Beard, or run ext install early-effect.groks-beard.
Open chat with Ctrl+; / Cmd+;.

Same VSIX on VS Code and Cursor. VS Code installs from the Marketplace. Cursor's gallery is Open VSX (early-effect.groks-beard).

From source:

pnpm install
pnpm pack:vscode
code --install-extension packages/vscode/groks-beard.vsix --force

Requirements

VS Code 1.105+ or Cursor
grok on your PATH
SuperGrok / X Premium+, or an xAI API key. Grok's free tier does not include the CLI agent.

The extension never holds your key.

What you get

TUI-shaped composer: @path, @path:start-end, slash commands from the live CLI
Ask-mode review before write: native multi-file diff, then Allow
Turn-grouped Grok Changes: Keep / Undo per file
Opt-in TUI bridge: selection, reveal, path-based diffs. No writes through MCP

Not in v1: Electron desktop, phone remote, voice, Codex/Claude, telemetry.

Shortcuts

Action	Key
Open Grok's Beard	`Ctrl+;` / `Cmd+;`
Add selection to chat	`Ctrl+Shift+;` / `Cmd+Shift+;`
Stop the running turn	`Escape` (chat focused)

Copyright and license

Grok's Beard is an original work by Russell White, published as early-effect.groks-beard.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. You may not use this project except in compliance with the License. Source: github.com/early-effect/groks-beard.