Grok Build Was Quietly Uploading Your Entire Codebase to the Cloud. xAI Has Now Switched It Off.
Researchers caught xAI's new coding tool sending far more data to its servers than users knew about, including files they had explicitly excluded and sensitive credentials.
Key points
- Grok Build, xAI's AI coding tool, was uploading entire code repositories to Google Cloud without clear user consent, researchers found in May 2025.
- The uploads included files users had told the tool to ignore, plus secrets previously deleted from project history.
- As of Monday, xAI's servers now return a flag that disables codebase uploads, and the uploads have stopped.
- Elon Musk posted that all previously uploaded data will be "completely and utterly deleted."
- An independent security researcher described the data retention as "excessive," noting it could expose proprietary code, passwords, and security vulnerabilities.
Grok Build is xAI's command-line coding assistant, a developer tool you install on your computer and use to write and edit software with AI help. Researchers at a firm called Cereblab published findings this week showing the tool was packaging up entire project folders and sending them to Google Cloud storage before each AI interaction.
That alone raised eyebrows. What alarmed security experts was the detail: the uploads included files users had specifically told the tool not to open, and credentials (passwords and access keys) that developers had already deleted from their project history.
Similar tools, including Anthropic's Claude Code, do not collect nearly this much data.
As first reported by The Verge AI, independent security researcher Dr. Lukasz Olejnik of King's College London confirmed the data haul was "excessive." The information potentially swept up could include proprietary source code, details about security weaknesses in systems, personal data, infrastructure configuration files, and login credentials.
For everyday developers, those are exactly the files you would never want a third party holding.
Should developers be worried about data already uploaded?
Yes, but xAI says it is acting quickly. Elon Musk posted on X that all data Grok Build previously collected will be "completely and utterly deleted." The uploads themselves have already stopped: Cereblab confirmed that xAI's servers now send a signal telling the tool not to upload codebases, and their tests show the transfer no longer happens.
xAI's initial public response pointed users toward a command called /privacy inside the tool, suggesting it would stop data retention. Cereblab pushed back on that explanation. The /privacy command only toggles data retention for a single session. It was not the fix that actually stopped the bulk uploads.
Musk also posted that "privacy settings are always respected," while separately asking users to let xAI keep their data to help with debugging. That combination struck some observers as contradictory.
If you have used Grok Build on any project containing passwords, API keys (codes that give access to services), or sensitive business logic, treat those credentials as potentially compromised. Rotate any secrets that were in those repositories. It takes minutes and removes the risk entirely.
