How to connect Grok to your LinkedIn messages
For a small recruitment firm, LinkedIn is the office: candidates asking about roles, clients asking for updates, invitations from people you half know, and a steady stream of pitches. Most of those messages need a reply, and many need the same reply. Grok can read and sort them, and with Spaces connected it can reply from your own profile. This guide covers the setup, a worked example from a two-person recruitment firm, how to handle invitations and InMail sensibly, and the extra care LinkedIn needs because it restricts automation on personal profiles.
What you need
- A Grok account that can add custom connectors. xAI decides which plans can do this, and it changes from time to time, so check their help pages if you cannot find the option.
- A Spaces account. Your trial starts when you connect a chat account, with no card needed.
- The LinkedIn account your customers already message you on.
- A short note about your business: what you sell, prices, opening hours and the things you never want promised. You will paste it into Grok later.
- About ten minutes for the setup, and a little longer to try it on a few real messages.
Step 1: connect your LinkedIn account to Spaces
You sign in to LinkedIn through a secure link and approve the connection. Your account stays yours, and you keep using it on your phone as normal.
Once it is connected, the account shows in your Spaces dashboard. Connecting does not send anything. It only means Spaces can read and send on that account when an AI agent you have added asks it to.
Connect your own LinkedIn profile, the one candidates and clients message. LinkedIn restricts automation on personal profiles, so read the note at the top of this page before you connect. If two of you recruit, each person connects their own profile as a separate account.
Step 2: add Spaces to Grok
- Go to grok.com/connectors and choose New Connector, then Custom.
- Paste https://api.spacesos.com/mcp as the URL.
- Sign in to Spaces and approve access.
- On Business and Enterprise plans an admin adds the connector first.
To check it worked: Ask Grok to list your Spaces accounts.
You sign in on Spaces' own page during this step, so Grok never sees your LinkedIn login or your Spaces password. If Spaces does not show up:
- Open a new chat and check the Spaces connector is turned on in it.
- Sign in to Spaces again from the connector, in case the first sign-in did not finish.
- Remove the connector and add it again, checking the address is exactly https://api.spacesos.com/mcp.
- If it still does not appear, xAI's help pages have their current steps, and our Grok setup page has ours.
Step 3: try it
Open a new chat in Grok, make sure Spaces is turned on, and ask in plain words:
- List my LinkedIn conversations with new messages since Friday.
- Sort them into candidates, clients, invitations and pitches.
- Draft replies to the candidates using my notes, and wait for my OK.
- Which invitations are from people at companies we work with?
Start with a question that only reads, like the first one. It shows you that Grok can see your LinkedIn messages before you let it send anything. Then try a draft, read it carefully, and only then let it send.
Good to know
Grok acts when you ask it to in a chat. It does not watch your inbox on its own. For replies around the clock, use an agent that runs all the time, such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw or Hermes, or set up a Spaces routine that sends set replies to set questions.
In practice, treat Grok as a quick helper you sit down with a few times a day: first thing, at lunchtime and before you close. Each time, ask what came in, check its drafts and let it send the ones you are happy with. Customers who message in between wait until your next session, just as they would if you were answering by hand.
A Spaces routine is not an AI. It sends a reply you wrote in advance when something happens, such as a new message or a keyword. That makes it a good way to send "Thanks for your message, we will reply first thing tomorrow" after hours, while Grok writes the real answers in your next session.
Ask Grok to hold replies as drafts for your first week, and nothing goes out until you approve it. LinkedIn conversations are often with people you will speak to again, so the first impression counts.
A worked example: Monday morning at a recruitment firm
Here is how a session might go for a two-person firm that places finance staff. Names and details are examples.
| Who | Message |
|---|---|
| You, to Grok | List my LinkedIn conversations with new messages since Friday, and sort them. |
| Grok | Eleven. Candidates: Tom asks if the credit controller role is still open, Aisha sent her CV and asks what happens next, and Ben asks for feedback after his interview. Clients: Karen at a logistics firm asks when she will see shortlisted CVs. Invitations: four, two from finance managers at local firms. Pitches: two, both selling lead generation. |
| You | The credit controller role is still open. Draft Tom, Aisha and Karen from my notes. Leave Ben for me, the feedback is sensitive. Ignore the pitches. |
| Grok | Tom: "Hi Tom, yes, it is still open. Could you send your CV and your notice period, and I will give you a call this week?" Aisha: "Thanks Aisha, I have your CV. I will read it today and call you by Wednesday to talk through roles that fit." Karen: "Hi Karen, I will send you three shortlisted CVs by Thursday afternoon." |
| You | Change Karen's to Friday morning. Send all three. |
| Grok | Sent three replies from your LinkedIn profile. Ben's message and the pitches are untouched. |
Spaces sends them at least 20 seconds apart. Grok knew to ask Tom for a notice period only because the notes say so, which is the point of giving it notes: it asks the next useful question instead of a generic one.
Notes to give Grok for LinkedIn
Paste a note like this at the start of each chat on grok.com:
About us: Ledger Talent, recruitment for finance roles, two recruiters (me and Sam).
Open roles: credit controller (Leeds, hybrid), assistant accountant (Bradford). Update weekly.
Candidates: thank them, ask for CV and notice period if missing, offer a call. Never promise an interview.
Clients: give dates only if I have told you them. Otherwise say I will confirm today.
Salaries and fees: never mention numbers in a message.
Tone: friendly, professional, short. First names. No exclamation marks.
Ignore: lead generation, offshore staffing, SEO and "quick question" pitches.
Leave for me: interview feedback, offers, anything about a placement going wrong.Keep the open roles line current. If it says a role is open after it has been filled, Grok will tell candidates it is open.
Invitations, connections and InMail
A normal message goes to a 1st-degree connection. Anyone else needs a connection request or an InMail. That shapes what Grok can do. Replies in existing conversations are where it is most useful, and replies to people who wrote in have no daily limit in Spaces.
| Thing | What Spaces allows | A sensible way to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Invitations you receive | Grok can list them and accept or ignore them for you | Ask for a short list with job titles, and decide yourself. |
| Connection requests you send | 30 a day and 150 a week on a free account, 100 a day and 200 a week on Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter, 6 an hour (12 on a paid account) and at least 90 seconds apart (22 a day on days 1 to 3, then 40, 60 and 85 a day on a paid account) | Only to people you have actually spoken to, such as a candidate after a call. |
| InMail | 5 a day on a free account, 50 on Premium and 50 on Sales Navigator or Recruiter (about 800 a month), at least a minute apart | Rarely. A candidate who expects to hear from you is fine; a cold pitch is not. |
A recruiter's instinct is to reach out widely. Keep that instinct for your own careful messages. An AI agent sending invitations or InMail to lots of strangers is exactly the pattern LinkedIn restricts.
Two recruiters, two profiles
A LinkedIn profile belongs to one person, so each recruiter connects their own profile to Spaces. Each profile is a separate account with its own limits and its own warm-up. Grok can work with both, as long as you tell it which profile you mean.
- Say "on Sam's profile" or "on my profile" in each request, so replies go from the right person.
- Keep one notes file for the firm and a short line in it for each recruiter's open roles.
- On Grok Business and Enterprise plans, an admin adds the connector first. Agree who handles which conversations so nobody answers twice.
If LinkedIn pushes back
LinkedIn sometimes asks for a security check, or restricts an account for a while. If LinkedIn restricts the account or asks for a security check, Spaces pauses everything your agent sends from it for three days and tells you. That pause is deliberate: carrying on during a restriction is the quickest way to make it worse.
While it lasts, sign in to LinkedIn yourself, complete any check it asks for, and answer urgent conversations by hand. When the pause ends, start again gently, with replies rather than new conversations.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Letting Grok tell candidates a role is open after it has been filled. Update the notes every week.
- Mentioning salaries or fees in messages. Keep numbers for calls.
- Asking Grok to search LinkedIn and message people. Searches and profile views have limits for a reason, and cold outreach is what LinkedIn restricts.
- Letting Grok give interview feedback. It is personal and should come from you.
- Mixing up profiles. Name the profile in every request when there are two of you.
Summing up
With Spaces, Grok can read your LinkedIn inbox, sort candidates from clients from pitches, and reply from your own profile. Keep your open roles current in the notes, keep feedback, offers and money for yourself, treat invitations and InMail with care, and let Spaces' limits and its pause after a restriction protect the profile you rely on.
How Spaces keeps your account safe
Whatever you ask, Spaces keeps your LinkedIn account inside safe limits: at least 20 seconds between messages, up to 150 a day, and 100 new conversations a day at most, with a gentler start for a newly connected account. If your AI tries to go faster, Spaces holds the message and says when it can try again.
New conversations warm up over the first weeks after you connect:
| Since connecting | New chats an hour | New chats a day |
|---|---|---|
| First 3 days | 3 | 22 |
| Rest of week 1 | 6 | 40 |
| Week 2 | 9 | 60 |
| Weeks 3 and 4 | 12 | 85 |
| After that | 15 | 100 |
A normal message goes to a 1st-degree connection. Anyone else needs a connection request or an InMail.
These are Spaces' own limits. They lower the risk of a restriction, but they cannot remove it, because LinkedIn makes its own decisions about accounts. Read the note at the top of this page before you connect.
Pricing
FAQ
Does this use LinkedIn's Messages API?
No. That API is for approved partners. Spaces signs in to your own profile, so LinkedIn's User Agreement applies. Read the note at the top of this page before you connect.
Will Grok answer LinkedIn messages on its own?
No. Grok acts when you ask it in a chat on grok.com and does not watch your inbox. For set replies when you are away, a Spaces routine can send text you wrote in advance.
Can Grok accept connection invitations for me?
Yes. Spaces can list the invitations you have received and accept or ignore them when you ask. Ask Grok for a short list with job titles first, and decide yourself.
Can Grok send connection requests?
Spaces can, within tight limits (30 a day and 150 a week on a free account, 100 a day and 200 a week on Premium, Sales Navigator or Recruiter, 6 an hour (12 on a paid account) and at least 90 seconds apart (22 a day on days 1 to 3, then 40, 60 and 85 a day on a paid account)). Keep them for people you have actually spoken to.
Can two of us use it?
Yes. Each person connects their own LinkedIn profile, and each profile is its own account with its own limits. On Grok Business and Enterprise plans an admin adds the connector first.
What happens if LinkedIn restricts my profile?
If LinkedIn restricts the account or asks for a security check, Spaces pauses everything your agent sends from it for three days and tells you. Sign in to LinkedIn yourself, complete any check it asks for, and start again gently afterwards.
Does Grok see my LinkedIn password?
No. You sign in to LinkedIn on Spaces' secure link, and Grok signs in to Spaces. Grok never sees your LinkedIn login.