grok-build-mcp-server

An MCP server that wraps the xAI Grok Build CLI (grok) so any MCP client (Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, etc.) can query Grok through your local grok install.

Grok is particularly strong at web research (incl. X/Twitter), direct critique / red-teaming, and code + analysis — a useful counter-voice alongside other models.

Why

grok runs headlessly (grok -p "<prompt>" --output-format json) and authenticates with your existing Grok login. This server exposes that headless mode as MCP tools — no extra API keys, it rides your existing Grok access. Responses are parsed from Grok's structured JSON output for robustness.

Install

Requires Grok Build (grok) installed and logged in:

grok -p "say pong"   # should print a response

Register with Claude Code

claude mcp add grok-build -- npx -y @talabisaac/grok-build-mcp-server

Or add it manually:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grok-build": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@talabisaac/grok-build-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

If grok is not on the spawned process's PATH, set its absolute path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "grok-build": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@talabisaac/grok-build-mcp-server"],
      "env": { "GROK_CLI_PATH": "/home/you/.grok/bin/grok" }
    }
  }
}

Tools

| Tool | Description | Args | |------|-------------|------| | grok | Query Grok (xAI) | prompt (required), model, effort | | web-search | Web search incl. X/Twitter, Grok-synthesized | query (required), summarize | | ping | Health check | message (optional) | | help | List tools | — |

effort accepts: low, medium, high, xhigh, max. Include files in a prompt with the @ prefix.

Environment

| Variable | Purpose | |----------|---------| | GROK_CLI_PATH | Absolute path to the grok binary (default: grok on PATH) | | GROK_MCP_DEBUG | Set to any value to enable debug logging on stderr |

License

MIT © Isaac Yoon / TripleA Lab