--- title: Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar | daily.dev description: Researchers discovered that Grok Build, xAI's coding agent, was uploading entire user repositories to company-controlled cloud storage — including files the... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar | daily.dev og:description: Researchers discovered that Grok Build, xAI's coding agent, was uploading entire user repositories to company-controlled cloud storage — including files the... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ipAtZ6Ygs.png og:image:alt: Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar **[Security Boulevard](https://daily.dev/sources/securityboulevard)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Researchers discovered that Grok Build, xAI's coding agent, was uploading entire user repositories to company-controlled cloud storage — including files the agent was told not to access and secrets deleted from Git history. SpaceXAI responded by disabling default retention, promising to delete retained data, and open-sourcing the Grok Build harness under Apache 2.0. The piece dissects the trust failure, noting that open-sourcing the harness after being caught is remediation, not proof of original transparency. It also distinguishes between open source, open weights, open development, and verifiable operational transparency. Sam Altman's pointed one-word response ('Concerning') is analyzed as competitive theater with a legitimate point. The author argues the incident reflects a broader industry need: AI coding agents should default to opt-in retention, disclose data practices clearly, and make their harnesses independently inspectable before developers hand over their most sensitive code. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Pulse: Grok’s CLI caught uploading all your local files to the cloud](https://daily.dev/posts/the-pulse-grok-s-cli-caught-uploading-all-your-local-files-to-the-cloud-fyahyaegk) · The Pragmatic Engineer · 17 upvotes · 7 comments - [OpenClaw used Gavriel Cohen’s code and exposed the AI Agent accountability problem](https://daily.dev/posts/openclaw-used-gavriel-cohen-s-code-and-exposed-the-ai-agent-accountability-problem-slsklvhc1) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#data-privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/data-privacy), [#grok](https://daily.dev/tags/grok) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T10:34:05.998Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T10:35:04.591Z","description":"Researchers discovered that Grok Build, xAI's coding agent, was uploading entire user repositories to company-controlled cloud storage — including files the...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/a73fbff783a09a6a3388460928cf4cca?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/a73fbff783a09a6a3388460928cf4cca?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Security Boulevard","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Security Boulevard","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/3613c832180040de8d85bb29f74395be","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/securityboulevard"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/grok-got-caught-with-its-hand-in-the-code-jar-ipatz6ygs","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,ai-agents,data-privacy,grok","timeRequired":"PT12M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Security Boulevard","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/securityboulevard"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Grok Got Caught With Its Hand in the Code Jar"}]} ```