Google has unveiled its artificial intelligence (AI) coding agent, Gemini Command Line Interface (CLI), as an open-source tool, making a bold move to capture the developer market.
On Wednesday, Google announced the global release of Gemini CLI in its preview version.
Gemini CLI is an AI agent that operates directly within developers’ command-line interfaces. It simplifies complex programming tasks by allowing coding through natural language. For instance, when a developer types a command like create a website, the AI automatically generates the corresponding code.
This versatile tool goes beyond coding assistance. It leverages Google’s video generation AI model Veo 3 for video production, offers deep research capabilities for report writing, and provides access to Google Search, among other features.
By releasing Gemini CLI as open-source under the Apache 2.0 license, Google enables developers to modify and redistribute the code freely. The tech giant is also offering the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and a substantial context window of one million tokens at no cost.
Google boasts industry-leading quotas, allowing up to 1,000 requests per day and 60 requests per minute.
A Google spokesperson emphasized that the Gemini CLI is compatible with popular collaboration platforms, including Slack and Microsoft Teams. They added that it can be extended through agent protocols such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
Ryan J. Salva, Senior Director of Product at Google, emphasized the transformative potential of AI coding agents. Salva stated that over the next decade, these tools will revolutionize the work of not just developers but all creators. He stressed the importance of equal access to these tools for students, developers, and freelancers alike.
Google’s entry into the AI coding agent market is poised to intensify competition among tech giants in the coding sector.
This move follows recent launches by other major players: OpenAI introduced Codex CLI last month, while Anthropic unveiled Claude Code in February. Microsoft continues to lead the pack with GitHub Copilot, which has already amassed over 15 million users.