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Day 12 — Switching EchoKit to Grok (with Built-in Web Search) | The First 30 Days with EchoKit

· 3 min read

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 and 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:

[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. You will need to buy credits before using the Grok API.

Don't rush to close the config.toml window.

This is the special part.

Add the following section in the config.toml file:

[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If your server is outdated, you'll need to recompile it from source.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
  • Or share your latency tests, setups, and experiments — we love seeing them

Want to get your own EchoKit device?