Test before you trust

Before you let any agent run on its own, two rules will save you from an avoidable mess.

A "test" run is a real run. On Grok Bot the docs say it plainly: a test run can navigate websites, change files, and call connected tools — it is not a simulation. The same is true in spirit for Muse and Dots: the first time an agent executes a task, it's doing it for real. So test with safe inputs, point it at a copy or a low-stakes target, and keep every write action behind approval while you're testing.

Start read-only, then widen. The safest way to onboard any agent to a new job is to first let it look and propose without acting: draft the email instead of sending, recommend the purchase instead of buying, list what it would change. Read a few of those outputs. Only once it's consistently right do you grant it the action — and even then, keep the risky parts behind approval per Module 3.

A short pre-flight checklist for any new agent task:

• Did it use the current inputs (today's data, the right account), not something stale?
• Is the output in the form you asked for?
• Can you see why it did what it did — a source, a link, an audit trail entry?
• Did it stop at the intended approval point instead of barreling through?
• Does it say clearly when something failed?

If any answer is "no," fix the instructions and test again. And remember the irreversibles: deleting a Grok Bot routine has no undo, and an action an agent already took can't be recalled by denying the next one. The whole point of testing is to move the surprises to a moment when they're cheap.