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google-gemini/gemini-cli — a trending TypeScript project

An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.

README of google-gemini/gemini-cli on GitHub1 min read10 views
google-gemini/gemini-cli — a trending TypeScript project

google-gemini/gemini-cli — TypeScript · 107,578 stars · 14,776 forks · +38 today

An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.


[!NOTE]

Unpaid tier and Google One users: Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI on June 18th, 2026. To learn more, see our blog post.

Gemini CLI has not been optimized for Gemini 4 Argon. To use Gemini 4 Argon, please use Antigravity.

Gemini CLI

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Gemini CLI CI Gemini CLI E2E (Chained) Version License View Code Wiki

[!NOTE]

Gemini CLI is not optimized for the latest Gemini models. For the best coding experience with Gemini models use Antigravity CLI

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.

Learn all about Gemini CLI in our documentation.

📦 Installation

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See Gemini CLI installation, execution, and releases for recommended system specifications and a detailed installation guide.

Quick Install

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Run instantly with npx

# Using npx (no installation required)
npx @google/gemini-cli

Install globally with npm

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Install globally with Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install gemini-cli

Install globally with MacPorts (macOS)

sudo port install gemini-cli

Install with Anaconda (for restricted environments)

# Create and activate a new environment
conda create -y -n gemini_env -c conda-forge nodejs
conda activate gemini_env

# Install Gemini CLI globally via npm (inside the environment)
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Release Channels

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See Releases for more details.

Preview

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New preview releases will be published each week at UTC 23:59 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

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  • New stable releases will be published each week at UTC 20:00 on Tuesdays, this will be the full promotion of last week's preview release + any bug fixes and validations. Use latest tag.
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

Nightly

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  • New releases will be published each day at UTC 00:00. This will be all changes from the main branch as represented at time of release. It should be assumed there are pending validations and issues. Use nightly tag.
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@nightly

📋 Key Features

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Code Understanding & Generation

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  • Query and edit large codebases
  • Generate new apps from PDFs, images, or sketches using multimodal capabilities
  • Debug issues and troubleshoot with natural language

Automation & Integration

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  • Automate operational tasks like querying pull requests or handling complex rebases
  • Use MCP servers to connect new capabilities, including media generation with Imagen, Veo or Lyria
  • Run non-interactively in scripts for workflow automation

🔐 Authentication Options

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Choose the authentication method that best fits your needs:

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

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When 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_ID"
gemini

Option 2: Gemini API Key

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

Benefits:

  • Model selection: Choose specific Gemini models
  • Usage-based billing: Upgrade for higher limits when needed
# Get your key from https://aistudio.google.com/apikey
export GEMINI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
gemini

Option 3: Vertex AI

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✨ Best for: Enterprise teams and production workloads

Benefits:

  • Enterprise features: Advanced security and compliance
  • Scalable: Higher rate limits with billing account
  • Integration: Works with existing Google Cloud infrastructure
# 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

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[!NOTE]

Gemini CLI is not optimized for the latest Gemini models. For the best coding experience with Gemini models use Antigravity CLI

Basic Usage

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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

For real-time event streaming (useful for monitoring long-running operations), use --output-format stream-json to get newline-delimited JSON events:

gemini -p "Run tests and deploy" --output-format stream-json

Quick Examples

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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

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Getting Started

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Core Features

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Tools & Extensions

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Advanced Topics

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Troubleshooting & Support

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  • Troubleshooting Guide - Common issues and solutions.
  • FAQ - Frequently asked questions.
  • Use /bug command to report issues directly from the CLI.

Using MCP Servers

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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

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

  • Report bugs and suggest features.
  • Improve documentation.
  • Submit code improvements.
  • Share your MCP servers and extensions.

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

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Uninstall

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See the Uninstall Guide for removal instructions.

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Star History Rank


Built with ❤️ by Google and the open source community


Content above is the README of google-gemini/gemini-cli, reproduced from GitHub’s trending list. All rights remain with the original authors.

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