gemini-cli

Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI CI Gemini CLI E2E Version License

Gemini CLI Screenshot

Gemini CLI is an open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal. It provides lightweight access to Gemini, giving you the most direct path from your prompt to our model.

🚀 Why Gemini CLI?

📦 Installation

Quick Install

Run instantly with npx

# Using npx (no installation required)
npx https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli

Install globally with npm

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Install globally with Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install gemini-cli

System Requirements

Release Cadence and Tags

See Releases for more details.

Preview

New preview releases will be published each week at UTC 2359 on Tuesdays. These releases will not have been fully vetted and may contain regressions or other outstanding issues. Please help us test and install with preview tag.

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@preview

Stable

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

Nightly

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@nightly

📋 Key Features

Code Understanding & Generation

Automation & Integration

Advanced Capabilities

GitHub Integration

Integrate Gemini CLI directly into your GitHub workflows with Gemini CLI GitHub Action:

🔐 Authentication Options

Choose the authentication method that best fits your needs:

Option 1: Login with Google (OAuth login using your Google Account)

✨ Best for:

See quota limits and terms of service for details.

Benefits:

Start Gemini CLI, then choose Login with Google and follow the browser authentication flow when prompted

gemini

If you are using a paid Code Assist License from your organization, remember to set the Google Cloud Project

# Set your Google Cloud Project
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="YOUR_PROJECT_NAME"
gemini

Option 2: Gemini API Key

✨ Best for: Developers who need specific model control or paid tier access

Benefits:

# Get your key from https://aistudio.google.com/apikey
export GEMINI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
gemini

Option 3: Vertex AI

✨ Best for: Enterprise teams and production workloads

Benefits:

# Get your key from Google Cloud Console
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
export GOOGLE_GENAI_USE_VERTEXAI=true
gemini

For Google Workspace accounts and other authentication methods, see the authentication guide.

🚀 Getting Started

Basic Usage

Start in current directory

gemini

Include multiple directories

gemini --include-directories ../lib,../docs

Use specific model

gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash

Non-interactive mode for scripts

Get a simple text response:

gemini -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase"

For more advanced scripting, including how to parse JSON and handle errors, use the --output-format json flag to get structured output:

gemini -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase" --output-format json

Quick Examples

Start a new project

cd new-project/
gemini
> Write me a Discord bot that answers questions using a FAQ.md file I will provide

Analyze existing code

git clone https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
cd gemini-cli
gemini
> Give me a summary of all of the changes that went in yesterday

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

Core Features

Tools & Extensions

Advanced Topics

Configuration & Customization

Troubleshooting & Support

Using MCP Servers

Configure MCP servers in ~/.gemini/settings.json to extend Gemini CLI with custom tools:

> @github List my open pull requests
> @slack Send a summary of today's commits to #dev channel
> @database Run a query to find inactive users

See the MCP Server Integration guide for setup instructions.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Gemini CLI is fully open source (Apache 2.0), and we encourage the community to:

See our Contributing Guide for development setup, coding standards, and how to submit pull requests.

Check our Official Roadmap for planned features and priorities.

📖 Resources

Uninstall

See the Uninstall Guide for removal instructions.

📄 Legal

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