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What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

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Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#31
post #25

This is one of the reasons why native proprietary coding agent runners like claude-code, codex, grok-build etc are so dangerous for privacy… you just don’t know what “secret sauce” they’ll add in the next update… It’s much safer to use something like opencode and use models via their API… however, the tradeoff is that it will never perform as well as it does in their native agent runners…

Give enough usage, you can reconstruct an entire codebase via tool calls alone, and it'll be entirely undetectable because it's all done server side. Whatever grok's doing is just more blatant, but using opencode or whatever doesn't create a meaningful security boundary. It's like the meme of using cheetos as a lock.

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#32
post #25

This is one of the reasons why native proprietary coding agent runners like claude-code, codex, grok-build etc are so dangerous for privacy… you just don’t know what “secret sauce” they’ll add in the next update… It’s much safer to use something like opencode and use models via their API… however, the tradeoff is that it will never perform as well as it does in their native agent runners…

I agree with you, but Codex is open source.

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#33
post #25

This is one of the reasons why native proprietary coding agent runners like claude-code, codex, grok-build etc are so dangerous for privacy… you just don’t know what “secret sauce” they’ll add in the next update… It’s much safer to use something like opencode and use models via their API… however, the tradeoff is that it will never perform as well as it does in their native agent runners…

last time I checked, codex is still open source w Apache-2.0 license

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re worried about this why are you using a third party AI in the first place? Running any query in Claude or Codex could result in the AI reading/uploading any file in your codebase.

key point: Grok is not even using the files they upload. they send home entirety of codebase that they do not even use for user AI queries. and why use cloud AI for coding? how is this even a question in 2026? if you don't, you can't compete with somone who does use it.

[deleted]

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does OpenAI also have access to all github repos via partnership with microsoft?

It would be _extremely_ surprising if private repos were available via that contract. Corporations wouldn't use GitHub at all if anyone other than those given direct access had read/copy permission.

They were caught stealing Apple trade secrets, dude. Nothing is beneath them.

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does OpenAI also have access to all github repos via partnership with microsoft?

It would be _extremely_ surprising if private repos were available via that contract. Corporations wouldn't use GitHub at all if anyone other than those given direct access had read/copy permission.

I could see there being different rules for enterprise accounts.

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#38
Grok Build has had impressive performance in a couple of my projects. And fast. So this revelation has been very disappointing...

I will say, a majority of the code I'm writing now is fully through an online LLM. If a company wanted to reconstruct a project I'm working on, they could just replay all of the tool calls from their logs, if they decide to retain the data (I did this locally once to recover a project that I mistakenly clobbered in Git).

Still, this is a big overstep IMO. At the very least, they should make it clear in their terms of service and privacy policy, and not hidden through legalese. Not all usage of Grok Build will be through their enterprise plan which offers ZDR.

Re: What xAI's Grok build CLI sends to xAI: A wire-level analysis

#39

The simplest way to disable uploading your repo is disabling it in the config. [harness] disable_codebase_upload=true

This is completely made up. The Grok Build CLI reference lists no such thing. Whatever LLM you asked probably hallucinated this.
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