By name: gemini-api-cli description: Guide for using the Gemini API CLI tool. Use when you need to interact with the Gemini API via the command line, manage agents, or generate media (images, audio).
Gemini API CLI Skill
This skill provides guidance on using the gemini-api command-line interface.
Overview
The gemini-api CLI allows you to:
- Run prompts against various Gemini models.
- Manage the full lifecycle of Gemini Agents.
- Generate and edit media (images, audio, TTS).
References
For detailed usage and examples, see the following references:
- Normal Model Calls: See references/model_calls.md for text generation, multi-turn conversations, and tool usage.
- Agents (Lifecycle): See references/agents.md for creating, testing, and managing agents.
- Agent Calls: See references/agent_calls.md for invoking antigravity-preview-05-2026 and Deep Research agents.
- Genmedia: See references/genmedia.md for image generation, image editing, and text-to-speech.
Basic Usage
The primary command is gemini-api run.
gemini-api run "Hello, who are you?"
Always ensure your GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable is set.
Global Flags & Features
The CLI supports several flags that are useful for debugging and automation:
Dry Run (--dry-run)
Prints the equivalent curl command and exits without making an API call. Useful for verifying what request would be sent.
gemini-api run "Hello" --dry-run
Help (--help)
Displays usage information and available flags for any command.
gemini-api --help
gemini-api run --help
JSON Output (--json)
Outputs raw SSE events as JSONL (one event per line), useful for machine parsing.
gemini-api run "Hello" --json
Verbose (--verbose / -v)
Outputs complete JSON step objects line-by-line as they finish. Recommended for programmatic parsing by calling agents.
gemini-api run "Hello" --verbose