Gemini CLI
GoogleGoogle's terminal coding agent, bringing Gemini models into the shell for coding, debugging and task automation. It ships built-in tools for Google Search grounding, file operations, shell commands and web fetch, and extends through MCP and GEMINI.md system-prompt files.
A free tier runs on a personal Google account, with paid access through AI Studio or Vertex.
Openness
5 high confidence- license
- Apache-2.0(OSI)
- source
- public
- core features withheld
- no
Fully Apache-2.0; commercial relationship is on model quotas, not the tool.
- https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli recorded 2026-08-13
Apache-2.0 license badge plus three README statements - "Open source - Apache 2.0 licensed", "Gemini CLI is fully open source (Apache 2.0)", and "License - Apache License 2.0"; full source published, 106.5k stars; no enterprise directory or paid tier of the tool
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/main/LICENSE recorded 2026-09-29
The LICENSE file is the unmodified Apache License text, headed "Apache License" and "Version 2.0, January 2004", an OSI-approved license with no additional restriction clauses.
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/main/README.md recorded 2026-09-29
The README states "Gemini CLI is fully open source (Apache 2.0), and we" invite community contributions, with "License**: [Apache License 2.0](LICENSE)"; searched for enterprise edition or license key: none, only model access tiers.
Adoption
4 high confidenceAdoption is measured by npm downloads of @google/gemini-cli, Google's own package for the terminal agent, so the figure measures direct use of the tool rather than a proxy.
- https://api.npmjs.org/downloads/point/last-month/@google/gemini-cli recorded 2026-08-12
1,850,744 downloads in the trailing 30 days for @google/gemini-cli
Capability
5 high confidenceGemini CLI combines an agentic terminal loop, MCP extensibility and built-in Google Search grounding, a feature few close peers offer. No benchmark score is published for the CLI itself, so it is judged on this feature set, which places it level with OpenHands on breadth.
- https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/ recorded 2026-08-13
official launch covering the free tier, MCP extensibility and GEMINI.md
- https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli recorded 2026-08-13
terminal-first agentic loop, MCP client and server, Google Search grounding, installation and auth paths; no benchmark figure published
Verified 2026-09-26, except some scores, still awaiting re-confirmation