add day 12

doc/dev/2025-12-05-echokit-day-12-grok.md

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+---
+slug: echokit-30-days-day-12-grok
+title: "Day 12 — Switching EchoKit to Grok (with Built-in Web Search) | The First 30 Days with EchoKit"
+tags: [echokit30days]
+---
+
+
+# Day 12 — Switching EchoKit to Grok (with Built-in Web Search)
+
+Over the past days, we’ve been exploring how EchoKit’s **ASR → LLM → TTS** pipeline works. We learned how to replace different ASR providers, and this week we shifted our focus to the **LLM** — the part that thinks, reasons, and decides how EchoKit should reply.
+
+We have connected EchoKit to [OpenAI](https://echokit.dev/docs/dev/echokit-30-days-day-9-chatgpt) and [OpenRouter](https://echokit.dev/docs/dev/echokit-30-days-day-10-openrouter).
+**Today, we’re trying something different: Grok — a super-fast LLM with built-in web search.**
+
+
+## Why Grok?
+
+Grok, developed by X, stands out for a few practical reasons:
+
+* **⚡ Extremely fast inference**
+  Great for voice AI agents like EchoKit.
+
+* **🔍 Built-in web search**
+  Your device can answer questions using fresh information from the internet.
+
+* **🔌 OpenAI-compatible API**
+  Minimizes changes — EchoKit can talk to it just like it talks to OpenAI.
+
+For a small device that depends on fast responses, Grok is an excellent option.
+
+## How to Use Grok as Your LLM in EchoKit
+
+All you need to do is update your `config.toml` of your EchoKit Server.
+No code changes, no rewriting your server — just swap URLs and keys.
+
+### **1. Set Grok as the LLM provider**
+
+In your `config.toml`, make sure the `[llm]` section points to Grok:
+
+```toml
+[llm]
+llm_chat_url = "https://api.x.ai/v1/chat/completions"
+api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"
+model = "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning"
+history = 5
+```
+
+You can find your Grok API key in your **[xAI account dashboard](https://console.x.ai/)**. You will need to buy credits before using the Grok API.
+
+Don't rush to close the `config.toml` window.
+
+### **2. Enable Grok’s Web Search**
+
+This is the special part.
+
+Add the following section in the `config.toml` file:
+
+```toml
+[llm.extra]
+search_parameters = { mode = "auto" }
+```
+
+`mode = "auto"` allows Grok to decide when it should fetch information from the web.
+Ask anything news-related, trending, or timely — Grok will search when needed. 
+
+### Restart the EchoKit server
+
+After that, save these changes, and restart your EchoKit server.
+> If your server is outdated, you'll need to recompile it from source. Support for Grok with built-in web search was added in a commit on December 5, 2025.
+
+## **Try It Out**
+
+Press the K0 button to chat with EchoKit and try these prompts:
+
+* “What’s the latest news in AI today?”
+* “How’s the Bitcoin price right now?”
+* “What's the current time in San Francisco?”
+
+If everything is configured correctly, you’ll notice Grok pulling fresh information in its responses.
+It feels different — the answers are more grounded in what’s happening *right now*.
+
+
+Switching EchoKit to Grok was surprisingly simple — just a few lines in a config file.
+Now my device can do real-time search when a question needs up-to-date info.
+
+---
+
+If you want to share your experience or see what others are building with EchoKit + Grok:
+
+* Join the **[EchoKit Discord](https://discord.gg/Fwe3zsT5g3)**
+* Or share your latency tests, setups, and experiments — we love seeing them
+
+Want to get your own EchoKit device?
+
+* [EchoKit Box](https://echokit.dev/echokit_box.html)
+* [EchoKit DIY Kit](https://echokit.dev/echokit_diy.html)
+
+