A Grok-powered coding agent you can remote-control from Telegram

What it does

grok-cli is an open-source terminal coding agent that talks to xAI’s Grok API. It wraps the model in an interactive OpenTUI interface for daily hacking, but also runs headless with structured JSON output for scripts and CI. The agent comes with built-in tools for real-time X and web search, image and video generation, and a verify mode that builds, tests, and smoke-checks your app in a sandbox.

The interesting bit

The project treats sub-agents as the default behavior, not a premium add-on: it delegates foreground tasks to specialized agents like computer or explore while spinning off read-only background research in parallel. The quirkiest feature is Telegram remote control—pair a bot once, keep the CLI running, and then ping your agent from your phone with voice notes or text.

Key highlights

• Built-in sub-agents (task and delegate) are enabled by default for parallel work.
• Real-time X and web search tools keep answers current.
• Generates images and videos inside chat sessions, caching files locally before xAI URLs expire.
• Includes a computer sub-agent for macOS desktop automation via accessibility snapshots and stable refs.
• Supports custom sub-agents, Skills, MCP servers, and persistent sessions.
• Headless mode with newline-delimited JSON event streams for automation.

Caveats

• The computer sub-agent and its desktop automation currently target macOS only.
• Interactive mode expects a modern terminal emulator; the README explicitly recommends WezTerm, Alacritty, Ghostty, or Kitty and warns that other terminals may be less reliable.
• Deeper autonomous testing and persistent sandbox sessions are listed as “coming soon,” not shipped yet.
• Telegram remote control requires the CLI process to stay alive because long polling runs inside it.

Verdict

Worth a look if you want a hackable, terminal-first Grok client with delegation and phone-based remote control. Skip it if you need cross-platform desktop automation or a fully autonomous agent out of the box today.