Grok Bot gives you separate bots with their own chats, messages between bots, and group chats. Which channel a desk uses is a convention you set, not something the product decides. A simple rule works for most setups: use the group chat when more than one desk needs to see the same update or decision, and send a direct message to one bot when the work concerns only that desk. Write the rule into every bot's description so all desks follow it, and add a stop-before-send rule for anything that leaves the project.
Who this is for
You run several Grok Bot desks, such as a writer, a reviewer, and a coordinator, and the group room has filled up with handoffs only one desk cared about, while decisions that everyone needed got lost in direct messages.
Choosing the channel
| Situation | Convention: group chat | Convention: direct message to one bot |
|---|---|---|
| Status update several desks rely on | Yes | — |
| Decision more than one desk must follow | Yes | — |
| Handoff to the next desk only | — | Yes |
| Correction for one desk's work | — | Yes |
| Question only one desk can answer | — | Yes, then post the answer in the group if others need it |
| New rule for every desk | Announce it, and update each description | — |
None of this is enforced. It holds because each desk's instructions say the same thing.
Write it into each description
## Channels
- Group chat: status updates, decisions, and new rules that more than one desk needs.
- Direct message to one bot: handoffs, corrections, and questions for that desk only.
- If a direct conversation produces a decision others need, post a one-line summary in the group chat.
- Before sending, posting, or publishing anything outside this project, stop and ask me.Pitfalls
- Everything in the group. Every desk reads every handoff, and the decisions get buried. Move one-desk work to direct messages.
- Decisions in private. A choice made between two bots that a third desk needs never reaches it. Add the summary-to-group rule.
- Rules in one desk only. If the coordinator's description has the channel rule and the writer's doesn't, the convention breaks.
- Assuming the product routes for you. Nothing picks the channel or orders replies for you. Your written rule does that.
- Chat as storage. Messages are for nudging the next desk. Keep the work itself in files the desks agree on.
How to check it
- Read each desk's description and confirm the same channel rules appear in all of them.
- Scroll the group chat and count handoffs that concerned only one desk; move that habit to direct messages.
- Pick a recent decision made in a direct message and confirm a summary reached the group.
- Ask a desk to send something outside the project and confirm it stops and asks you first.
For keeping agent instructions in one predictable file, see the AGENTS.md guide for Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex. For a Lead Bot as a coordination seat, see What is a Lead Bot in a Grok Bot group?. Pair channel rules with a desk handoff and shared-file ownership.
Where ShipKits fits
The Operator Pack ($47) is markdown seats + skills + install.sh — not a hosted app, not a chatbot. Seven named seats, three skills, an ops playbook and a token-cost playbook. Done means a file, PR, or URL. Role-file templates include sections for channel rules, handoffs, and a stop-before-send rule. Soft path: start at /free. Cheat Sheet for the skim checklist mindset.
Soft next step
Add the four-line channel rule above to every desk's description today. Soft ladder: /free, then the Operator Pack ($47). Related: AGENTS.md guide, Lead Bot, desk handoff, shared files.