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Use civicbot free, right inside Grok.

Grok can read a web page you point it to. civicbot publishes its whole brain as one plain-text page: grok.txt. It has the instructions and 37 ready-to-fill links to free public data (weather alerts, air quality, tides, quakes, transit, recalls and more), plus how to draft a 311 report that you submit. Paste one prompt into Grok in the X app, on grok.com or in the Grok app. Nobody pays X API fees, and nothing is posted.

1. Paste this prompt

Open Grok (the Grok tab in the X app, grok.com or the Grok app), paste, send. Grok opens grok.txt, then the matching free API, and answers with the numbers and the source. You can ask follow-ups in the same chat without repeating the link.

More things to ask

2. Make it stick (optional, free)

Custom instructions

In Grok's settings, open the custom instructions (Personalization) and paste this. After that a plain question like “any weather alerts?” is enough. Replace {your city, state} with your place.

A Grok Project

On grok.com, create a Project called “civicbot” and paste this as its instructions. Every chat in that Project is civicbot. Your other chats stay normal.

A daily brief (Automations)

On grok.com or in the Grok app, Automations can run a prompt on a schedule. Per xAI, scheduled automations are available on the free tier. Each run uses your normal free usage. Try this daily at 7:00:

3. Reporting a problem (311)

Say “there's a pothole at 5th and Walnut, help me report it”. Grok reads your city's list of 311 services and writes a ready-to-paste report (service, location, description, photo tip). It also gives you the official city link or app. You submit it. Grok is told never to file, submit or post anything. civicbot knows Chicago, Boston, Bloomington IN, Austin and Brookline. Anywhere else it uses SeeClickFix's public service list or points you to your city's own 311 site. In an emergency, call 911.

4. Any other AI assistant

The same prompt works in assistants that can open web pages (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and others, depending on your plan and settings). If yours can't open links, copy the whole instruction file and paste it in first, then ask your question. Without live browsing it can draft 311 reports but can't fetch live data.

  Files: grok.txt · grok-apis.txt (116 keyless APIs) · llms.txt · grok-pack.json

5. Beyond civic questions: the global directory

Grok can also use civicbot's global directory of free APIs. It's split into small text files by continent and country so Grok only opens what it needs. Try:

Files: grok-global.txt (the index), plus one file per continent and per country, e.g. grok-apis-europe.txt and grok-apis-pt.txt. grok.txt itself is unchanged.

What about tagging @grok on X?

We don't recommend it, and there is no how-to here. Since March 2026, X's “Ask Grok” reply button has reportedly been limited to Premium. Public @grok mentions get replies only selectively, and xAI hasn't published an official policy we could confirm. A mention is also public: never put your home address in one. Use the private Grok chat instead (the Grok tab in the X app is the same Grok).

Honest limits

Sources (checked 2026-10-10)