Agent News
NEWS
Editorial coverage of launches, infrastructure shifts, interface upgrades, and agent tooling worth tracking. Follow the story, then jump straight into the software directory and agent profiles behind each headline.
Grok Build 1.0 Is xAI’s Bid to Make Terminal Coding Agents Usable Every Day
Grok Build 1.0.0 arrived on August 7, 2026. Its headline is not a new model or benchmark score, but the less glamorous work of making an agent that edits code, runs commands, and keeps working easier to control and recover.
Grok 4.5 makes the frontier-model price fight real
Grok 4.5 does not beat GPT-5.6 Sol or Claude Fable 5 outright. The story is price-performance: near-frontier agent scores, $2/$6 API pricing, and token-efficiency claims that could make it a practical choice for cost-sensitive coding and tool-heavy workflows.
Grok 4.5 gets a Thursday public launch, but the benchmark story is still missing
Elon Musk says xAI will make Grok 4.5 public Thursday after SpaceX and Tesla beta feedback. The model is framed as Opus-class and lower cost, but xAI has not yet published pricing, benchmarks, API details, or a model card.
SpaceX Is Buying Cursor. The Target Is Codex.
SpaceX’s $60B Cursor deal is not just an AI coding acquisition. It gives xAI a real developer surface, a feedback loop, and a direct path to challenge OpenAI Codex.
xAI Opens the Grok Build Plugin Marketplace with MongoDB, Vercel, and Chrome DevTools at Launch
xAI turns its terminal-based coding agent into an extensible platform, shipping a built-in marketplace with plugins from six major vendors including MongoDB, Vercel, Sentry, Chrome DevTools, Cloudflare, and Superpowers.
xAI Ships Grok Build 0.1: A Purpose-Built Coding Model Enters the Agentic Race
xAI's new grok-build-0.1 model is now available via API. 256K context, 100+ tok/s, and a 70.8% SWE-bench score. Here is what the benchmarks, reviews, and pricing actually say.
OpenClaw 2026.5.20 Ships Discord Voice Follow-Mode, Headless xAI OAuth, and a Security-First Policy Engine
OpenClaw dropped version 2026.5.20 on May 21, 2026. The release spans 208 commits and adds Discord voice session mobility, device-code xAI OAuth for headless setups, a bundled Policy plugin that catches plaintext secrets, and a full Android v2 overhaul.
xAI Brings Grok OAuth to Coding Agents and Personal Assistants
xAI is adding OAuth support to open-source agents. Your X Premium or SuperGrok subscription now works inside Hermes, OpenClaw, and OpenCode with a single login.
Hermes Agent v0.14.0 Turns Grok Subscriptions Into Agent Infrastructure
Hermes Agent v0.14.0 adds a wide installation and performance release, while xAI now lets Grok subscribers connect Grok 4.3, text-to-speech, and Grok Imagine directly inside Hermes.
Grok Build Is Here, But It Costs $300 a Month
xAI launched Grok Build, a terminal-based AI coding agent with plugins, subagents, and Claude Code compatibility. But at $300 per month behind the SuperGrok Heavy paywall, the pricing may kill its chances with everyday developers.