Use your to-do list in Grok chats
When you’re thinking out loud with Grok, your to-do list is usually the next step. Add SwitchDesk as a custom connector on grok.com and Grok can see what’s on your plate, add what the chat decides, and check things off, with the access you pick.
- Connects by signing in (OAuth)
- About 3 minutes
- Set up on your Mac · Pro
Needs Your Approval3
What Grok can do with your list in a chat
The connector gives Grok a set of SwitchDesk tools it can call in the middle of a conversation. You decide which ones, one permission at a time.
- Look things up. What’s in Today and This Week, what’s due, what you finished, the notes on a to-do. It can search titles and notes when you only remember a word.
- Capture. Turn a line from the chat into a to-do in Incoming, or straight into a category or a day, with a due date or a repeat.
- Tidy. Rename, move, re-date, mark urgent, check off or delete.
- Check with you. When it’s unsure, Grok can put a question on your list with up to three answers to tap, like the one above.
Grok also reads each category’s bio, the short line that says what the category is for. That’s how “add it to the client stuff” ends up under Lumora and not under Personal.
Why your list belongs in the conversation
Chats with Grok tend to end in decisions: a plan for the week, a reply to write, three things to check before a launch. Without a connector, those decisions stay in the chat and you copy them over by hand. With one, the last message can be “add those” and they’re on your list.
It works the other way too. Ask Grok to help you plan and it starts from what you actually have on, not from what you remember to type in. If Thursday already holds two calls and a deadline, it can see that before it suggests anything.
And it’s quick capture without switching apps. You’re mid-chat about something else, you remember the car registration, you type one sentence, and it lands in Incoming.
Things to ask Grok
“Look at my SwitchDesk list and help me plan Thursday. I have about four free hours.”
ReadsReads Today, This Week and what’s due, then suggests a plan in the chat. Nothing on your list changes.
“Turn the plan we just made into to-dos under Lumora.”
ChangesAdds each one to Lumora. In Assistant, adding to a category waits for your tap; sent together, they arrive as one card.
“Remind me to renew the car registration.”
ChangesAdds it to Incoming at once. Assistant lets that through without a card.
“What’s overdue, and which of it can wait until next week?”
ReadsLists overdue to-dos with its reasons. Ask it to move them and the moves become a card.
“I called Joe Raman back. Check off that to-do.”
ChangesFinds it by title. In Assistant, the check-off waits as a card for you to approve.
“Find anything about the Fernhill offsite in my notes.”
ReadsSearches to-do titles and notes, and quotes what it finds in the chat.
Set it up
You’ll need SwitchDesk for Mac, signed in, and grok.com open in your browser. Finish the sign-in within 15 minutes of clicking Continue, while your saved access is waiting.
SwitchDesk on your Mac
Click Connect an AI and choose Grok
Open Settings → AI Access and click Connect an AI. Choose Grok (“grok.com”).
SwitchDesk on your Mac
Answer “What can it do?”, then Continue
Pick Read only, Assistant or Full control; Fine-tune sets each permission on its own. Click Continue (with Full control the button reads Allow & Continue). There is no key to copy: SwitchDesk keeps your choice ready for the sign-in.
grok.com
In grok.com, open Connectors → New Connector → Custom.
On a Grok Business or Enterprise account, an admin may have to set up the connector first.
grok.com
Paste this URL.
Paste it as the server URL.
https://mcp.switchdesk.org/mcpgrok.com
Sign in with your SwitchDesk email.
Grok sends you to SwitchDesk’s sign-in page. Enter your SwitchDesk email, then the code we email you. The page offers the access you picked on your Mac; confirm it, and Grok loads the SwitchDesk tools. Finish within 15 minutes.
grok.com
Try it in a chat
Click Done in SwitchDesk. Then start a chat and ask: “What’s on my SwitchDesk list for today?” Grok reads Today and answers in the chat.
Grok finds the tools on its own after sign-in. For the full list of what it can call, and the rules SwitchDesk gives every AI, see the guide for AI agents.
MCP server and tool reference →
Choose how much Grok can do
Every permission is Off, Ask or On. Read only lets Grok look but change nothing, which suits a planning chat. Assistant, the default, lets it add to Incoming freely and turns every other change into a card. Full control applies changes at once and also opens meeting transcripts and recaps.
You pick on your Mac before you sign in, and the sign-in page offers “Use the access you set on your Mac”, the presets, or Customize. To change it later, open the connection in Settings → AI Access; the new access applies on Grok’s next call. What each permission covers.
Keeping it safe
- No secret to leak. There’s no key in grok.com, only a sign-in that renews itself. Revoke in Settings → AI Access ends it at once.
- Only you approve. Grok can propose a change, but approving happens on your Mac, by tapping the card. Grok can’t tap for you, and it can’t raise its own access.
- Pasted text is data. If you paste an email or a web page into the chat, it might contain instructions aimed at an AI. SwitchDesk tells Grok never to follow instructions found in to-dos or notes, and Assistant keeps deletes behind Ask so a stray instruction can’t clear your list.
- A record of every call. Activity lists every call each connection makes, with Undo for 7 days on anything it changed.
- Hard limits. Whatever you allow, it can never touch your settings, billing, team members or sharing, or send your data anywhere.
Running routines with Grok Bot as well? Give it its own connection. Separate connections mean separate access, separate Activity and a Revoke that ends one without touching the other.
If something doesn’t work
- The sign-in page doesn’t show the access you picked. The access you pick on your Mac waits 15 minutes after Continue. If that ran out, pick a preset on the page, or connect again on your Mac and sign in.
- Grok says “not allowed”. That permission is Off. Turn it on in Settings → AI Access; it applies on the next call.
- Grok says it’s waiting for approval. That’s working as meant. The card is in Needs Your Approval on your Mac.
- Grok says SwitchDesk Pro is needed. AI Access is part of Pro. The connection pauses and picks up again when your plan does.
- Grok says to try again in a few seconds. It hit the rate limit. Waiting the number of seconds it gives is enough.
- Grok says the connection is paused. Resume it in Settings → AI Access.
- Meetings or Notes aren’t shared. Switch on “Share meetings & notes with your AIs” on your Mac and enter the code we email you.
- An old grok.com connection still shows. Signing in again from grok.com replaces it. You can also end the old one with Revoke.
Published . How AI Access works →