Gemini CLI is an open-source command-line AI agent developed by Google that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal. It’s designed as a versatile local utility that connects to your development tools, understands your codebase, and accelerates your workflows through natural language interactions. The tool uses a reason and act (ReAct) loop with built-in tools and local or remote MCP servers to complete complex use cases like fixing bugs, creating new features, and improving test coverage. Unlike simple AI assistants that provide one-off responses, Gemini CLI acts as an intelligent agent that can execute multi-step plans and interact with your local development environment.
While Gemini CLI excels at coding tasks, it’s built to handle much more than just software development. The tool can query and edit large codebases beyond Gemini’s 1 million token context window, generate new applications from PDFs or sketches using multimodal capabilities, and automate operational tasks like querying pull requests or handling complex Git rebases. It can also be used for content generation, problem solving, deep research, and task management. The CLI integrates with Google Search to ground prompts with real-time external context, making it capable of providing current information rather than relying solely on training data.
Gemini CLI provides lightweight access to Gemini, giving developers the most direct path from their prompt to Google’s AI model. The tool is fully open source under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing developers to inspect the code, understand how it works, and verify its security implications. It’s built with extensibility in mind, supporting emerging standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP), system prompts via GEMINI.md files, and customizable settings for both personal and team configurations. This architecture allows developers to tailor the tool to their specific needs while maintaining compatibility with a broader ecosystem of AI development tools.