Gemini CLI¶

Google's Gemini AI assistant with broad knowledge and multimodal capabilities.

Overview¶

Gemini CLI is Google's command-line interface for the Gemini AI model. It excels at:

Broad knowledge and general questions
Documentation and explanations
Multimodal tasks (when supported)
Research and information gathering

Installation¶

Install Gemini CLI from Google:

# Verify installation
which gemini
gemini --version

Basic Usage¶

# Use Gemini with clinvk
clinvk --backend gemini "explain how this algorithm works"
clinvk -b gemini "write documentation for this API"

Models¶

Model	Description
`gemini-2.5-pro`	Latest and most capable model
`gemini-2.5-flash`	Faster, optimized for speed

Specify a model:

clinvk -b gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash "quick explanation"

Configuration¶

Configure Gemini in ~/.clinvk/config.yaml:

backends:
  gemini:
    # Default model
    model: gemini-2.5-pro

    # Enable/disable this backend
    enabled: true

    # Extra CLI flags
    extra_flags: []

Environment Variable¶

export CLINVK_GEMINI_MODEL=gemini-2.5-flash

Session Management¶

Gemini uses --resume for session resume:

# Resume with clinvk
clinvk resume --last --backend gemini
clinvk resume <session-id>

Sandbox Mode¶

Gemini supports sandbox mode for controlled execution:

backends:
  gemini:
    extra_flags:
      - "--sandbox"

Unified Options¶

These options work with Gemini:

Option	Description
`model`	Model to use
`max_tokens`	Maximum response tokens
`max_turns`	Maximum agentic turns

Best Practices¶

Use for Explanations

Gemini's broad knowledge makes it excellent for explaining concepts and providing context.

Leverage for Documentation

Use Gemini to write or improve documentation with its clear explanations.

Research Tasks

Gemini is great for gathering information and research-oriented queries.

Use Cases¶

Documentation¶

clinvk -b gemini "write comprehensive documentation for this module"

Explanations¶

clinvk -b gemini "explain the architecture of this microservice"

Research¶

clinvk -b gemini "what are the best practices for implementing rate limiting"

Code Review¶

clinvk -b gemini "review this code and explain potential issues"

Comparison with Other Backends¶

Aspect	Gemini	Claude	Codex
Knowledge breadth	Excellent	Good	Good
Code generation	Good	Excellent	Excellent
Explanations	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Speed	Fast	Moderate	Fast

Workflow Example¶

Use Gemini for research and documentation:

{
  "steps": [
    {
      "name": "research",
      "backend": "gemini",
      "prompt": "research best practices for authentication in Go"
    },
    {
      "name": "implement",
      "backend": "claude",
      "prompt": "implement authentication based on: {{previous}}"
    },
    {
      "name": "document",
      "backend": "gemini",
      "prompt": "write documentation for: {{previous}}"
    }
  ]
}

Troubleshooting¶

Backend Not Available¶

# Check if Gemini is installed
which gemini

# Check clinvk detection
clinvk config show | grep gemini

Authentication¶

Ensure you have valid Google Cloud credentials configured for the Gemini CLI.