How to Move from ChatGPT to Grok

A practical guide for authors. Written by Grok

Why this move is a gift

Most authors did not design their ChatGPT setup. It grew. One chat for a blurb. Then the same chat for the newsletter. Then a Custom GPT you opened twice. Then a memory full of facts from a book you already published, a pen name you retired, and a launch plan from 2024.

Moving is a chance to start the way you would start a new series bible: clean, named, and only as complicated as the work in front of you.

What you gain by coming over

  • Grok can see what readers are saying on X today, not last month’s search snippet. Useful when you are checking a title, a category, or a news hook.

  • Grok Bot do tasks using the tools you already have — WordPress, your email platform, ads, a retailer dashboard — and keep going after you close the laptop. ChatGPT can draft the email. A Bot can leave it in the platform for you to approve.


What you gain by not dragging everything over

This is the bigger perk, and most authors skip it.

Starting fresh lets you develop two superpowers ChatGPT made easy to avoid:

  1. Projects. One book, one launch, one website — each with its own brief and files. Not one infinite thread titled “Book stuff.”

  2. Skills. The way you write a blurb, a newsletter, or a pitch, written down once so you never re-explain it.

Old chats are a junk drawer. A brief plus a skill is a kitchen you can cook in.

There is no button that copies your ChatGPT account into Grok. But moving over context is easier than you might think.

Grok and Grok Bot are not the same thing

Grok is the chat assistant at grok.com, in the Grok app, and on X. It feels like a smart collaborator in a document. Use it for blurbs, chapter notes, research, and “which hook is stronger?” If you want a writing partner, start here.

Grok Bot is a team of bots with its own cloud computer. It feels like an assistant who can open your site and do the work. Use it for WordPress edits, email drafts in the actual tool, weekly checklists, and ads research. Add it only when the bottleneck is doing the work in a real tool.

A Custom GPT was a saved personality with files. A Grok Bot is closer to a virtual assistant: it can click, type, and leave work for your approval.

Grok Bot comes with paid SuperGrok or Cursor plans.

Write something in Grok today

No export. No Bot. One chat for the thing on your desk.

Steps

  1. Open grok.com or the Grok app and sign in.

  2. Click for a new chat. Name it after the job if you can: Cedar Lake — back cover, not New chat.

  3. Give Grok the same facts you would give a freelancer you hired for an hour.

  4. Ask for one draft, not five strategies.

  5. When a sentence is right, say so: “Keep that voice. Short paragraphs. No fake reviews.” Grok starts learning from this chat forward.

Paste this

I am an author.

Working title: [title]
Genre and promise: [one sentence a stranger would understand]
Reader: [who already likes books like this]
Tone: [plain / warm / wry / formal]
Length I need: [example: 150-word Amazon description]

Do not invent reviews, rankings, awards, sales numbers, or quotes.

Draft the [blurb / newsletter / landing page / pitch].
Then list three things you assumed. I will correct them.

Example. You need Friday’s newsletter. Open a new Grok chat. Attach last week’s issue or paste the chapter excerpt. Ask for a subject line, a 200-word body, and a single link. That is a complete first session.

Leave ChatGPT where it is. Many authors keep both for a while. This is not an all-or-nothing conversion.

Do not upload your entire ChatGPT history. A pile of old threads makes Grok worse, not wiser.

Tell Grok who you are

Once Grok has drafted something you like, spend about twenty minutes on a short author brief. After that you stop retyping your genre, pen name, and “please don’t use em dashes.”

Step 1 — Copy what ChatGPT already stored

In ChatGPT:

  1. Open Settings → Personalization → Custom instructions. Copy the text into a document.

  2. Open Settings → Personalization → Memory. Copy the list you still agree with.

  3. Start a new ChatGPT chat and paste the prompt below.

  4. Save the reply on your computer as who-i-am.md.

  5. Read it once. Delete anything wrong, outdated, or too private (home address, logins, a co-author fight).

Paste this into ChatGPT

Export everything you have stored about me as an author
and any standing rules I have asked you to follow.

Preserve my wording. Do not invent new facts.

Group as:
1. Identity (name, pen name)
2. Books and series (title, genre, status: draft / out / next)
3. Reader and promise
4. Voice and format rules (always / never)
5. Business setup I have mentioned (site, email tool, where I sell)
6. Active projects and decisions already made
7. Open questions

One markdown document. If you are guessing, label it GUESS.

Optional but smart: Settings → Data controls → Export data. You get a ZIP of old chats. That is a backup, not an import. It does not include memories, custom instructions, or Custom GPTs.

Step 2 — Load the brief into Grok

  1. In Grok, open settings and find Custom instructions (sometimes under Customize or Personalize).

  2. Paste only the short standing rules: who you are, how writing should sound, what Grok must never do. A paragraph or two. Not your series bible.

  3. Start a new Grok chat. Attach who-i-am.md.

  4. Paste the prompt below.

  5. Open Grok’s memory list and delete anything sloppy.

Paste this into Grok

This is my author brief. Remember the facts and the rules.
Ignore anything marked GUESS unless I confirm it.
Reply with a short list of what you stored.
Flag anything that looks stale or contradictory.

You moved a brief, not four hundred chats. That is the point.

Bring over one project — and keep it as a project

This is the habit worth stealing from a fresh start.

In ChatGPT, “the launch” often lived in a thread that also contained a joke about cover fonts and a grocery list. In Grok, give that launch its own home: one brief, the current files, and (if the work lives in a tool) one Bot.

Pick one live thing. Not your whole career.

Good first projects:

  • this release (checklist, assets, emails)

  • the author website rebuild

  • the series bible for the book you are writing now

  • the newsletter sequence you are actually sending

Step 1 — Ask ChatGPT for a handoff

Open the ChatGPT thread that still matters. Paste:

Write a handoff brief another assistant can use
without reading this whole chat.

Include:
- Goal and deadline
- Reader and promise
- Decisions already made (do not reopen these)
- What we tried that failed
- Files and URLs that matter
- The next three actions
- Questions only I can answer

Under 600 words. No rejected brainstorming.

Save it as project-cedar-lake.md or whatever you will still recognize in November.

Step 2 — Continue in a dedicated Grok chat

  1. New Grok chat. Name it after the project.

  2. Paste the brief.

  3. Attach only the current files: latest blurb, chapter list, brand colors, media one-sheet. Not every draft from March.

  4. Paste:

Continue from this brief.
Do not reopen closed decisions unless I ask.
Do the next action only. Show your work.
Stop if you need a fact I did not give you.

That chat is the project. Start a different chat when the job changes (“Cedar Lake ads” is not “Cedar Lake plot”).

Step 3 — Hand the project to a Bot when the next step is in a tool

Use a Bot when the next action is not more thinking. Examples:

  • change copy on the live WordPress site

  • leave a draft in MailerLite, Kit, or ConvertKit

  • look at Amazon or ads dashboards

  • run the same Friday checklist every week

Steps

  1. In Grok Bot, create one Bot. Name it after the job: Launch, Webmaster, Newsletter. Not Helper and not your own name.

  2. Attach the brief and the current files.

  3. Paste the first message below.

  4. Let it save copies under /workspace/cedar-lake/ (use your project name). Those files survive after you close the window.

  5. Approve the Bot’s restatement of the job before it touches anything live.

First message to the Bot

You are the [job] for [author or site].
One project: [title or URL].
Read the attached brief first.
Save a copy at /workspace/[project]/BRIEF.md
and put the other files in /workspace/[project]/.

Do not publish, send, delete, spend,
or change live settings until I say yes.

Tell me the next action and what you need from me.

One project. One Bot. You can add a second Bot after this one has finished a real job.

Save the way you work as a skill

If you have explained “how I write a blurb” more than twice, that explanation should be a skill, not a speech.

In ChatGPT this was usually a prompt you hunted for, or a Custom GPT that mixed voice rules with a pile of old PDFs. Here, a skill is the method. A routine is that method on a calendar (“every Monday, draft the newsletter and wait”).

Which skills are worth saving first

Pick work you do more than twice a year:

  • back-cover blurb from a one-page synopsis

  • Amazon description from the approved blurb

  • newsletter from a blog post or chapter

  • podcast pitch from your media one-sheet

  • launch-week checklist

Plot conversations and “is this hook stronger?” can stay in ordinary Grok chats. Those are thinking, not a procedure.

Step 1 — Get the method out of ChatGPT

In the ChatGPT thread where you already do this well:

Turn our usual process for [job] into a skill
another assistant can follow.

Use this shape:
1. When to use it
2. What I must provide
3. Steps, in order
4. Voice and format rules
5. What good output looks like
6. What requires my approval
7. What to never invent
   (reviews, numbers, quotes, reader emails)

A checklist, not an essay.

Save as skill-blurb.md (or newsletter, pitch, checklist).

Step 2 — Teach the Bot the skill

  1. Open the Bot that should own the job. Copy owns blurbs. Newsletter owns Friday emails.

  2. Attach skill-blurb.md and one real example (the last blurb you liked).

  3. Paste:

Save this as a skill called “Back-cover blurb.”
Keep the approval rules exactly as written.
Then run the skill once on the attached synopsis
so I can see if the output matches how I work.

  1. Correct the draft in plain language: “Too many adjectives. Promise the winter town, not ‘lush prose.’”

  2. Then:

Update the skill with the corrections I just made.
Show me the new version in five bullets.

Step 3 — Put it on a schedule only after it is boring

When the skill has been right three times, you can ask for a routine:

Every Monday, draft the newsletter from the latest
blog post on [site URL], leave it here for approval,
and do not send.

Do not automate sending, publishing, or spending until those three clean runs.

If you only reuse a prompt in chat — no website, no inbox, no calendar — paste it into Grok once and say, “Remember this as my default for blurbs.” That is enough. Promote it to a Bot skill when a tool or a schedule is involved.

Turn Custom GPTs into teammates

A Custom GPT will not import. Rebuild the ones you still open. Leave the rest in the archive. This is how you avoid cloning a GPT whose instructions were mostly “stop doing that ChatGPT thing.”

Step 1 — Make a three-line inventory

In ChatGPT, open Explore GPTs / My GPTs. For each one, jot three things: the name, what you actually open it for, and whether it is worth bringing over.

A few examples:

  • Launch Planner — you use it for the 90-day list before a release. Bring it over as a Launch Bot.

  • Blurb Machine — you use it for the back cover and Amazon description. Fold it into Copy.

  • Research pal — you use it for rabbit holes. Skip it. That is Grok chat.

  • 2024 series bible — you have not opened it this year. Keep the files. Do not rebuild the GPT.

If you have not opened it in 90 days, do not rebuild it.

Step 2 — Copy the insides

Open the GPT → Configure or Edit. Copy into a file named gpt-launch-instructions.md:

  • Name and one-sentence job

  • Full instructions

  • Starters you still like

  • The original knowledge files from your computer (synopsis, series bible, brand kit). Do not assume ChatGPT’s upload is complete or current.

Step 3 — Create the Bot

In Grok Bot, choose Create your own.

  • Name: short. Copy, Launch, Webmaster, PR.

  • Job: one outcome. “Keep the author site current.” Not “help with marketing.”

  • Description: a tightened version of the old instructions. Cut anything that only existed to fight ChatGPT.

Description skeleton

You are the [job] for [author / site / series].
Source of truth: [URL or /workspace path]
Voice: [three traits]
Always: [2–5 rules]
Never: publish, send, delete, spend,
or change live settings without a clear yes.
When a fact is missing, ask.
Do not invent reviews, rankings, or reader quotes.
After each task, say what you did,
what you did not do, and what needs approval.

Attach the old instructions and files. Then:

Read the attached instructions and files from my
old ChatGPT GPT named “[name].”

1. Restate your job in five bullets.
2. List instructions that are unclear,
   contradictory, or only about ChatGPT — drop those.
3. Save a brief at /workspace/[name]/BRIEF.md
   and the source files at /workspace/[name]/source/.
4. Do not start live work until I approve the brief.

Step 4 — Give it a small real job

Same size as you would have given the GPT. Not “run my launch.”

  • Copy: “Draft a 150-word Amazon description from the attached blurb. Do not publish.”

  • Webmaster: “List the homepage H1, the nav items, and the last three posts. Change nothing.”

  • Launch: “Turn the attached brief into a 30-day checklist. No dates you cannot justify.”

If the Bot is useful, keep it. If it is just a chat with extra steps, delete it and go back to Grok chat.

Marketplace templates

Grok Bot has a template marketplace. Adding a template copies a blueprint into your account. It does not use someone else’s logins. Still paste your brief and your approval rules. A generic “Marketing Bot” does not know your series order.

Where each thing should live

One home each, so you are not updating three copies of the same rule.

  • Who you are, voice, always / never — Grok custom instructions, plus who-i-am.md on your computer.

  • Short facts Grok should recall in any chat — Grok memory.

  • Thinking and one-off drafts — a named Grok chat.

  • A live book, launch, or site — one project brief and its files, plus a Bot if tools are involved.

  • A method you reuse — a Bot skill.

  • That method on a calendar — a Bot routine.

  • A specialist you message by name — its own Bot (Description plus files in /workspace).

  • Old ChatGPT threads you might reread — the export ZIP on your computer.

Two surprises worth knowing

All of your Bots share one cloud computer. Files and logins are account-wide. A second Bot is a second job, not a second vault.

Never paste a password into chat. When a site wants a login or 2FA, take over the Bot’s computer yourself.

A small roster, if you want one

Start with one Bot. Add the next when the first is boringly reliable.

  1. Copy — blurbs, Amazon descriptions, newsletter drafts. Stays in a document until you say send or publish.

  2. Webmaster — the author site. Looks first. Edits only after you approve. Prefer the site’s real tools (for WordPress, the REST API) over clicking the visual builder for every page.

  3. Launch — checklist and “what is missing.” Does not send mail or change ads by itself.

  4. PR — research outlets and draft pitches. You send, or you approve each send.

“Ask me anything about my book” is Grok chat. It does not need a Bot.

Rules worth typing once

Put these in Grok’s custom instructions and in every Bot description. Then add your own (pen name, series order, American spelling, “no BookTok,” whatever is true).

I am an author.
Do not invent reviews, rankings, awards,
sales figures, or reader emails.
Do not quote a living person unless I provided the quote.
Do not publish, send, delete, buy,
or change live site / ads / DNS settings without a clear yes.
If a source is missing, say so. Label guesses.
Ask only for the fact you need for the next step.

You have moved enough when

  • Grok can draft in your voice without a page of setup.

  • One live project has a brief — and files in /workspace if a Bot owns it.

  • Each Custom GPT you still needed is a Bot, or you admitted it was only a prompt.

  • ChatGPT is an archive you open on purpose. New work starts in Grok.

You have dragged too much when you uploaded the whole ChatGPT ZIP, built eight Bots before any of them finished a job, or asked a Bot to “read all my old chats and figure me out.”

Copy-paste prompts

Author brief (run in ChatGPT)

Export everything you have stored about me as an author
and any standing rules I have asked you to follow.
Preserve my wording. Do not invent new facts.
Group as: identity, books and series, reader and promise,
voice and format rules, business setup,
active projects and decisions, open questions.
One markdown document. Label guesses as GUESS.

Project handoff (run in the old ChatGPT thread)

Write a handoff brief another assistant can use
without reading this whole chat.
Include: goal and deadline, reader and promise,
decisions already made, what failed, files and URLs,
next three actions, questions only I can answer.
Under 600 words. No rejected brainstorming.

Turn a process into a skill (run in ChatGPT)

Turn our usual process for [job] into a skill.
Include: when to use it, what I must provide, steps,
voice rules, what good output looks like,
what needs approval, what to never invent.
A checklist, not an essay.

Load the brief (run in Grok)

This is my author brief. Remember the facts and the rules.
Ignore GUESS items unless I confirm them.
Reply with what you stored. Flag contradictions.

First message to a new Bot

You are the [job] for [author or site].
Read the attached brief and files from the ChatGPT GPT
I used to use for this.
Save BRIEF.md and the source files under /workspace/[name]/.
Do not publish, send, delete, or spend without a clear yes.
Restate your job in five bullets, then wait.

After a good run, save the skill

Save the process we just used as a skill called “[Name].”
Keep the approval rules.
Include inputs, steps, output format,
and what you must never invent.

Questions authors ask

Will Grok swallow my ChatGPT export ZIP?
No. Attach a cleaned markdown brief. Do not feed it conversations.json.

Do I lose my ChatGPT history?
No. Export it and leave the account open until you are sure you do not need a thread.

Can I move one conversation perfectly?
You can move the decisions. You cannot move the sidebar, the side quests, or whatever ChatGPT inferred and never wrote down.

Is Grok Bot just Grok with a hat on?
No. Grok answers. Grok Bot works on a computer, in your tools, and can keep going after you close the laptop.

Does every author need a Bot?
No. If you only need a writing partner, Grok chat is the whole move. Add a Bot when the bottleneck is WordPress, email, or ads — not the next sentence.

Can I keep ChatGPT too?
Yes. Plenty of authors do. Keep who-i-am.md and your project briefs on your computer so any assistant can read them.