xAI Open-Sources Grok CLI After It Silently Uploaded Users' Files to the Cloud

xAI’s Grok CLI coding agent, recently open-sourced as xai-org/grok-build, drew backlash after users discovered that running it inside a directory could upload the entire directory’s contents to xAI’s Google Cloud buckets. One user reported running the tool in their home directory and having it upload their SSH keys, password manager database, documents, photos, and videos. xAI has not published an official technical explanation for the behavior. Elon Musk responded to the backlash, stating that previously uploaded user data would be handled “as a precautionary measure,” though further remediation details were not available in reporting. Anyone who has run the Grok CLI in a directory containing credentials, SSH keys, or other sensitive files should treat that data as exposed and rotate it.