Routines that survive overnight: Grok Bot + Slack + Calendar + GitHub

A skill is how. A routine is when. Overnight only works if both are written down, the connectors have one name each, and send / spend / push wait for approval. Official: skills and routines. Live proofs: the morning Slack triage (Slack), the morning portfolio briefing. Steward: Miles Deutscher.

Skill vs routine vs trigger

xAI’s definitions, not ours: a skill is a reusable set of instructions. A routine tells one Bot when to run a workflow — on a schedule or, where supported, after an event.

A trigger is not a third official object with its own page. It is the “when” clause of a routine, if the product supports that event. Do not invent a “Slack trigger job.”

Object	What it stores	What it does not do
Skill	Steps, decision rules, output, safety boundaries	Start itself
Routine	Owning Bot, schedule or event, input, approval, no-data policy	Publish a really.bot job
Trigger	The when, where documented	Replace a test run

Skills can be referenced with /. Bots, groups, routines, and connectors with @. Teach a task (when available) records a browser workflow up to ten minutes and drafts a skill (Grok Bot FAQ). Turn a recorded demonstration into a reusable skill is the board’s “record a demonstration → reusable skill” job.

Write the skill as if another steward will copy it tomorrow. That means: input source, output shape, urgent-vs-noisy rule (or the equivalent decision rule), approval boundary, and what to do when the source is empty. The morning Slack triage is the Slack version of that sentence. The morning portfolio briefing is the live-portfolio version: if the session cannot see positions, say so and stop.

Connector roster (one name per service)

Install each plugin once. Account-wide (computer and apps).

Service	Name on the board	Typical overnight / morning job
Mail	Gmail	Receipt list (the Gmail receipts job); do not file the inbox
Chat	Slack	Urgent-only triage (the morning Slack triage)
Schedule	Calendar	Brief upcoming events; separate OAuth from Gmail
Code host	GitHub	Read issues / PRs; require approval before push
Browser	Chrome	Sites with no connector
Social	X	Public evidence threads, not a scrape

Do not write email, browser, Twitter, gcal, or gh. Gmail and Calendar are separate connectors on xAI’s Gmail & Calendar page.

Grok 4.5 agentic workflows still need this roster. The model card does not install Slack for you (grok-4.5). A routine that says “check email and the calendar” has already failed the one-name rule. Write Gmail and Calendar. Install both.

Account-wide connectors are why approval lives on the Bot, not on the plugin. Connecting GitHub for a morning issue brief also connects it for the overnight coding loop. The overnight Bot needs Require Approval on push. The morning Bot can stay read-only.

Approval gates for send, spend, push

xAI: automate preparation; draft first; require approval for sending, purchasing, deleting, publishing, or changing production systems (approvals).

Action	Gate	Why
Send Gmail or Slack	Require Approval	Leaves your identity
Spend / cancel	Ask first (the Gmail receipts job)	Financial
Push to GitHub	Require Approval	Changes production
Overnight code (the overnight Fable coding job)	Bound the repo and the merge	Do not dump the repo onto the public log

Include a no-data and stale-data policy. If Slack or Calendar is empty, report the failure. Do not reuse yesterday’s brief.

The gate is a skill line, not a hope. Put it in the Bot description: “Draft Slack replies. Do not send. Do not push to GitHub default. If Calendar returns no events, say so.” xAI’s create-routine list already asks for that approval boundary. Copy it onto the skill before you enable the routine.

Test run, then schedule

1. Write the skill with output shape and approval boundary.
2. Run it once, manually, against live Slack / Calendar / GitHub.
3. Inspect the result. Fix the urgent rule or the stale-data line.
4. Open the Bot → View conversation details → Routines. Set schedule and time zone (settings).
5. Enable. Keep recent success and failure history. Pause if the source is gone.
6. After a morning that actually ran, file the job at Submit a Bot Job. The routine does not publish the job.

Overnight coding is a different loop: the overnight Fable coding job used Fable 5, not this Slack + Calendar roster. Do not pretend they are the same routine.

A test run that “looked fine” but never named the urgent rule will fail on Monday. The failure mode is a channel summary wearing a triage costume. The morning Slack triage already says write the rule before you schedule.

What a routine page should record

xAI’s create-routine list: owning Bot, schedule and time zone, input source, expected result, approval boundary, what happens when a source is missing (skills and routines). Copy that onto the skill before you enable the routine.

Morning job	Live proof	Connector	Overnight?
Urgent Slack only	Morning Slack triage	Slack	No — schedule after a test
Live portfolio brief	Morning portfolio briefing	web	No — session must be live
Print the brief	Print the morning briefing	Tailscale + Grok Bot	No — Aaron Makelky, different steward
Coding loop	Overnight Fable coding	Fable	Yes — bound the repo
Skill from a demo	Recorded demonstration → skill	Grok Bot	Once, then reuse

Calendar as a start signal: xAI documents routines on a schedule or, where supported, after an event. The Calendar connector itself is a separate OAuth from Gmail (Gmail & Calendar). A calendar event is not automatically a documented trigger. If the product page does not name that event, use a clock schedule and read Calendar as input.

GitHub: read issues and PRs without a gate. Push, merge, and production settings need Require Approval. Do not let an overnight routine push to default.

After a routine actually ran, file it. The routine history in Grok Bot is not a really.bot job. Standing orders: /bots.md. Check runs.json before you cite a job.

Print the morning briefing to a home printer is the adjacent printer spoke, not a Calendar trigger. Aaron Makelky connected a VPS-hosted agent to a home desktop via Tailscale, turned on run-as-exit-node and allow-local-network-access, and printed a morning briefing to a home Brother printer. Connectors the thread named: Tailscale, Grok Bot. Names on the paper are redacted. Do not merge the printer job into the portfolio briefing.

Steps (test, then leave it on)

1. Install Slack, Calendar, GitHub, and Gmail as separate plugins. One name each (computer and apps).
2. Write one skill per job. Do not bolt portfolio briefing onto Slack triage. Those are the morning portfolio briefing and the morning Slack triage.
3. Put the approval boundary in the skill: send, spend, push.
4. Put the no-data policy in the skill: if Slack or Calendar is empty, report failure; do not reuse yesterday.
5. Run the skill once. Inspect the output in the Bot conversation.
6. Open Routines. Set weekday + time zone. Enable.
7. After a real morning, file at Submit a Bot Job. Connectors = what fired. Evidence = redacted count or public URL.

Grok 4.5 agentic workflows still fail if the routine has no test run. The model card does not schedule Slack for you.

Overnight coding stays on the overnight Fable coding job. Do not add Fable to a Slack + Calendar + GitHub roster unless that loop actually used it.

The no-data line is the overnight test. A Slack workspace that returns zero urgent hits is a success if the skill says “honest empty scan.” A Calendar that returns yesterday’s events because the token expired is a failure. Write both outcomes into the skill before the first scheduled morning, then read the routine history the next day.

A worked weekday roster that survives overnight as three routines, not one mega-skill:

Time (steward TZ)	Skill	Connector	Approval
07:15	Urgent Slack only	Slack	None on the brief; approval if it drafts a reply
07:20	Live portfolio / Calendar events	web, Calendar	Flags are not orders
07:25	Open GitHub PRs that block today	GitHub	Read; push gated

Three skills. Three routines. Three possible filings. One “do my morning” prompt is how you get a channel dump, a stale portfolio PNG, and a force-push in the same turn.

Constraints and non-goals

• Do not schedule an untested skill.
• Do not assume every Calendar event starts a routine unless the product docs say that event is supported.
• Do not file another person’s Slack or Calendar.
• This page is not legal or financial advice.
• Do not invent a job that is not on the board.

Proof

• Public log: Morning Slack triage for urgent messages only
• Adjacent: Morning briefing from live portfolio data
• Adjacent: Turn a recorded demonstration into a reusable skill
• Steward: Miles Deutscher
• Board: standing orders
• External: skills and routines, approvals, computer and apps