Grok CLI on Smart Pi One¶

Grok CLI is xAI's official Grok command-line assistant, packaged by YUMI-LAB to run on the 32-bit ARM (Allwinner H3 / armv7l) Smart Pi One and Smart Pad — hardware the standard installer rejects as unsupported.

Repository: github.com/Yumi-Lab/grok-cli-smartpi

1. How it works¶

xAI ships Grok only as a 64-bit binary, so on the Smart Pi One it runs through QEMU emulation — the installer sets all of that up for you, and you get the official Grok interface, unmodified.

The installer always fetches the latest published Grok and doubles as the updater — re-run it to update. A warm daemon keeps a process ready so repeat grok -p calls answer quickly, and GROK_CPUS limits how many cores it uses.

2. Requirements¶

armv7l / 32-bit ARM CPU (Allwinner H3)
At least 1 GB RAM
A Debian-based Linux distribution (tested on the Smart Pad — Debian 13 trixie armhf)
An X (x.com) or grok.com / SuperGrok account — a standard X subscription works; no API key needed
root/sudo for the first install only (installs into /opt/grok); updates then run unprivileged

3. Installation¶

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Yumi-Lab/grok-cli-smartpi/main/install.sh | bash

Re-run it any time to move to the latest. To pin a version: GROK_VERSION=<version> …. The installer also enables earlyoom for memory safety on the 1 GB board.

4. Authentication¶

Grok CLI signs in with your X (x.com) / grok.com account through a device-flow authorization — a standard X subscription works, no API key required, and no browser needed on the board itself.

grok login --device-auth

The CLI displays an accounts.x.ai URL and a verification code. Open the URL on any machine, enter the code to approve access, and the CLI detects the authorization automatically.

5. Usage¶

Command	Purpose
`grok`	The official Grok interactive interface
`grok -p "your question"`	One-shot answer through the warm daemon — fast once warm (`GROK_DAEMON=0` for the old direct behaviour)
`grok-daemon status\\|stop`	Inspect / stop the warm agent daemon (stops itself when idle)
`grok-live -p "your task"`	One-shot with readable streaming (dimmed reasoning)
`grok-chat`	Minimal multi-turn REPL
`grok models`	Show the signed-in account and model
`grok-check-update`	OTA probe — one JSON line
`GROK_CPUS=0,1 grok …`	Run on a CPU subset for this launch (default = all 4 cores)

Grok CLI interface on a Smart Pi One Live interface captured on a Yumi board (armv7l, Yumi OS 26.05).

6. Updating (OTA)¶

Update: re-run install.sh — that is the updater (exits fast when already newest; GROK_FORCE=1 to reinstall, GROK_VERSION=<version> to pin).
Check: grok-check-update prints one JSON line ({installed, latest, update_available}).
Never run grok update — it would install a binary outside the wrapper; re-run install.sh instead.

7. Notes¶

First call is slower: a cold one-shot takes a while; the warm daemon makes repeat grok -p calls fast.
Thermals: sustained emulated loads run hot and can freeze the board — cap the cores with GROK_CPUS (e.g. GROK_CPUS=0,1) to run cooler. Default is all 4 cores.
earlyoom is enabled as a memory safety net on the 1 GB board. Rule of thumb: run one heavy CLI at a time.
Licensing: the installer scripts are MIT (YUMI-LAB); the vendored QEMU is GPL-2.0; the official Grok binary is downloaded from xAI at install time and is not redistributed here.