gemini-cli

Tutorials

This page contains tutorials for interacting with Gemini CLI.

Setting up a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server

[!CAUTION] Before using a third-party MCP server, ensure you trust its source and understand the tools it provides. Your use of third-party servers is at your own risk.

This tutorial demonstrates how to set up a MCP server, using the GitHub MCP server as an example. The GitHub MCP server provides tools for interacting with GitHub repositories, such as creating issues and commenting on pull requests.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed and configured:

• Docker: Install and run Docker.
• GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT): Create a new classic or fine-grained PAT with the necessary scopes.

Guide

Configure the MCP server in settings.json

In your project’s root directory, create or open the .gemini/settings.json file. Within the file, add the mcpServers configuration block, which provides instructions for how to launch the GitHub MCP server.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "github": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "ghcr.io/github/github-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN": "${GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set your GitHub token

[!CAUTION] Using a broadly scoped personal access token that has access to personal and private repositories can lead to information from the private repository being leaked into the public repository. We recommend using a fine-grained access token that doesn’t share access to both public and private repositories.

Use an environment variable to store your GitHub PAT:

GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN="pat_YourActualGitHubTokenHere"

Gemini CLI uses this value in the mcpServers configuration that you defined in the settings.json file.

Launch Gemini CLI and verify the connection

When you launch Gemini CLI, it automatically reads your configuration and launches the GitHub MCP server in the background. You can then use natural language prompts to ask Gemini CLI to perform GitHub actions. For example:

"get all open issues assigned to me in the 'foo/bar' repo and prioritize them"

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