xAI Open-Sources Grok Build After Coding-Agent Privacy Backlash

xAI has open-sourced Grok Build, its terminal coding agent and text-based user interface, making the source code available on GitHub so developers can inspect the agent loop, tools, context assembly and extension system. The company announced the release as developer trust in AI coding tools faces scrutiny after security researchers reported that Grok Build uploaded more repository data than users expected, including full Git repositories in some cases. xAI's announcement does not address the controversy directly. The published source includes the agent loop, file and command tools, terminal UI, inline diff viewer and extension system for skills, plugins, hooks, MCP servers and subagents. xAI says Grok Build can run in a more local-first way when developers compile it and point it at their own inference setup. Developers increasingly want to verify behavior at the code level, including whether tools upload entire repositories or only relevant snippets, respect ignored files, filter secrets and make telemetry optional. Open source provides visibility but does not automatically solve privacy concerns because users must still distinguish between the open-source harness and any hosted model service it connects to. The coding-agent market includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and smaller developer-tool companies. Teams experimenting with Grok Build should treat it like a new developer with tool access, starting with non-sensitive repositories and reviewing network behavior.