x.ai Marketplace, plugins, and templates

TL;DR

• The in-app sidebar button used an older label until September 26, 2026, when it became Connect apps (that list is not the x.ai Marketplace). The October 2 changelog finished the rename: Connect Apps got category chips, Recommended for you first, and Bot templates on the web.
• Since September 29, the in-app list focuses on plugins. Featured Bots and Bot search results no longer appear there.
• Templates now travel by link: a share link opens a preview on x.ai where you add a copy to your account. Team-wide Bots are Team Bots, found under New → Team Bots.
• A plugin connects a service for every Bot on your account. A template gives you your own copy of someone’s Bot.
• Shortcuts: Cmd/Ctrl+K search finds plugins too, and @ in chat attaches a connector to a task.

If you’re looking for that old sidebar button and can’t find it, nothing is broken. It moved and changed focus.

What changed, and when

1. September 4: The in-app list starts listing Bots you can add as well as plugins, with categories, search and a page for each Bot.
2. September 26: the in-app sidebar button that used an older label becomes Connect apps (that list is not the x.ai Marketplace), with logos of featured plugins beside it.
3. September 29: The in-app list focuses on plugins. Featured Bots and Bot search results no longer appear, and the search box reads Search plugins.
4. October 2: The in-app list is now Connect Apps, with category chips under the search, Recommended for you first, and Bot templates on the web.
5. October 5: searching the command palette also finds plugins, and Enter opens the plugin’s page (v0.68.0).

Some xAI docs pages still mention adding a Bot from that old sidebar button. The changelog is newer, so go by what the app shows.

Plugins vs. templates vs. Team Bots

Adding a template creates a copy on your account. It doesn’t give you the creator’s computer, logins or chat history. Shared Bots are made by other users, not by SpaceXAI.

How to find templates now

1. Use a share link. When someone shares a Bot (Share → Create template), the link opens a preview on x.ai. Add a copy from the preview, then finish in the Grok Bot app.
2. Look on the web. The October 2 changelog says Connect Apps puts Bot templates on the web.
3. Ask creators. On October 5, Lauren Tan invited people to share good templates and noted that creators can be rewarded for high-quality ones.
4. For a Bot your whole team uses, look under New → Team Bots instead. That’s a shared Bot, not a template.

Before you share your own template, remove API keys, internal URLs, customer data and anything else you wouldn’t put in a public document. A public link shows the Bot’s identity, description, skills and routines.

How to connect an app

1. Open Connect apps from the sidebar. On the phone, tap your avatar, then Plugins.
2. Use a category chip or search, then choose Add.
3. When asked to Authorize, finish signing in in your browser. If it says Waiting for authorization, use Reopen.
4. Check that it says Connected. “Added” means installed, not signed in.
5. In chat, type @ to attach the connector to a task.

Connecting an app never publishes or posts anything by itself. It gives your Bots access to use when you ask. Lauren Tan’s advice to new users: connect the apps you use regularly first, like your calendar, Slack, issue tracker, CRM and Google Drive.

Door 1: Bot templates on the web

The public catalog of other people’s Bots is the x.ai Marketplace. Those Bots no longer sit on an in-app shelf. They arrive as template links that open on the web. You can read about one here, including the Haggle Bot case study. Reading is the whole job on bot.ski. Botski featured bots here lists published reviewed records only.

A listing is someone else’s recipe sitting in public. Opening it does not put a teammate on your account, and it does not install a plugin.

Door 2: plugins

Plugin is a job word, and two products use it for different rooms.

Plugins on a Grok Bot

In the Grok Bot app, Connect Apps is where connectors and packaged skills are installed. xAI docs call those connectors plugins. They are account-wide: every Bot on your one computer can see an installed connector. That room is not the public Bot shelf, and choosing it does not add someone else’s teammate.

Plugins are not a section inside Settings. The settings page sends you back to Connect Apps. A closer Botski map of the named connectors is connectors and plugins.

Door 3: a template

A template is a recipe you make from a Bot you already have. Open the Share menu and choose Create template. The template lives on the web: the other person opens the link, previews the configuration, and adds a copy in the Grok Bot app. They receive the recipe. They do not receive your computer, logins, or conversation history.

That recipe is not a plugin, and publishing it is not the same thing as browsing the public shelf. Read what a template copies before you share one, and add, import, and copy prompt before you trust a button that says add or import.

Which door you wanted

• A teammate someone else already described: their template link, then the preview.
• A connector or a packaged skill on your Grok Bot account: Connect Apps inside the Grok Bot app.
• A coding-agent plugin: Grok Build’s own plugin shelf. Leave the Bot doors alone.
• A copy of a Bot you can explain: Create template, from a Bot you already run.

Who is allowed to open the app at all is a different question. See plans, and what add means.

Next

• Haggle Bot, a case study
• Plans, and what add means
• What a template copies
• Connectors and plugins

Sources

Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

• Use the computer and apps

  https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/computer-and-apps

  Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

  Connectors install as plugins from Connect Apps in the app. .md returned HTTP 200.

• Settings and notifications

  https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/settings-and-notifications

  Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

  Plugins are not a settings section. .md returned HTTP 200.

• Create and manage Bots

  https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/bots

  Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

  Create template is the recipe door. .md returned HTTP 200.

• Grok Build skills and plugins

  https://docs.x.ai/build/features/skills-plugins-marketplaces

  Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

  Coding-agent plugin shelf. Separate from the x.ai Marketplace. .md returned HTTP 200.

• x.ai Marketplace

  https://x.ai/bot/marketplace

  Fetched 2026-09-23 CT.

  HTML shelf of other people’s Bots. Not a plugin store.