Gemini CLI supports a wide range of practical development tasks that demonstrate its versatility beyond simple code generation, including querying and editing large codebases, generating new applications from PDFs or sketches using multimodal capabilities, automating operational tasks like querying pull requests and handling complex rebases, and connecting with external tools through MCP servers. These capabilities make it valuable for both individual developers and team workflows, serving as a bridge between high-level project requirements and detailed implementation work. The tool’s ability to understand context across multiple files and maintain project-level awareness makes it particularly effective for tasks that require understanding of complex system architectures and interdependent components.
Real-world applications include bug detection and fixing where the tool identifies issues and proposes solutions, code understanding tasks like summarizing architecture and explaining module roles, automated test generation to improve reliability and CI confidence, and documentation support for creating structured markdown docs and changelogs. Developers use it for everything from simple code explanations to complex multi-file refactoring projects that require careful coordination of changes across multiple system components. The tool excels at tasks like analyzing GitHub issues and proposing implementation plans, automatically generating unit tests that achieve high coverage, creating comprehensive API documentation from existing code, and even performing security audits by identifying potential vulnerabilities in codebases. Its ability to work with legacy code is particularly valuable, as it can help developers understand and modernize older systems without requiring extensive manual analysis.
Advanced use cases include creating slide decks from git history grouped by features and team members, building full-screen web applications for displaying GitHub issues, generating media content using integration with tools like Imagen and Veo, and automating entire development workflows through scriptable interactions. The tool’s extensibility through MCP servers allows integration with enterprise collaboration suites, making it valuable for teams that need to bridge development tools with business processes. These examples demonstrate how Gemini CLI functions as both a coding assistant and a comprehensive development workflow automation platform. Teams have successfully used it to automate code reviews, generate deployment documentation, create onboarding materials for new developers, and even coordinate complex release processes that involve multiple repositories and deployment targets. The tool’s ability to maintain context across long conversations makes it particularly effective for project planning sessions where teams need to explore multiple implementation approaches and make architectural decisions based on comprehensive analysis of existing systems.