Gemini CLI

Table of Contents

I like Gemini CLI AI agent because:

it is open-source and has cli interface
it built-in with Google search and webfetch
it shares technology with Gemini Code Assist

Just follow the quickstart guide at the GitHub repo: Gemini CLI. I just install the command-line AI workflow tool from Google.

Quickstart
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Here’s my setup:

Setup Node.js¹ (> v18.x).
Install Gemini-CLI with npm.
Simply start with gemini.
Pick Ayu Light theme.
Select Login with Google authenticate mode.

Show Version
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At the cmdline, we can check the gemini-cli version:

xx@pf22:~$ gemini -v
0.1.9

Or, in the gemini app, we can type /about to have the about screen.

Show Help
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At the prompt, simply /help will show the help screen commands. Here’s the list of commands:

Commands:
  /help - for help on gemini-cli
  /docs - open full Gemini CLI documentation in your browser
  /clear - clear the screen and conversation history       
  /theme - change the theme                               
  /auth - change the auth method                         
  /editor - set external editor preference              
  /privacy - display the privacy notice               
  /stats - check session stats. Usage: /stats [model|tools]
  /mcp - list configured MCP servers and tools            
  /memory - manage memory. Usage: /memory <show|refresh|add> [text for add] 
  /tools - list available Gemini CLI tools   
  /about - show version info                
  /bug - submit a bug report               
  /chat - Manage conversation history. Usage: /chat <list|save|resume> [tag] 
  /quit - exit the cli                             
  /compress - Compresses the context by replacing it with a summary. 
  ! - shell command                           

Logout/Quit
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To exit the app, type /quit.

Links
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GitHub repo: Gemini CLI
Google Blog: Gemini CLI: your open-source AI agent

Update (7/7/2025)
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Here’s a 2-min introduction on Gemini-CLI. It comes with:

free usage limits: Gemini 2.5 Pro with 1 million token context window
1K requests per day or 60 requests/min
open source

Update (31/7/2025)
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This is about the management of gemini-cli.

To install the absolute latest version available, just re-run the initial installation cmd:

xx@pf22:~$ npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Alternatively, we can use update cmd to update the npm package:

xx@pf22:~$ npm update -g @google/gemini-cli

And, here’s the what I get after updating it.

xx@pf22:~$ gemini -v
0.1.15

NodeJS 101 ↩︎

Author

cli-geek

Quickstart#

Show Version#

Show Help#

Logout/Quit#

Links#

Update (7/7/2025)#

Update (31/7/2025)#

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