Gemini CLI
Google's open terminal agent with a generous free tier
What it is
Brings Gemini into the shell: query and edit large codebases, generate apps from PDFs or sketches, and automate ops tasks. Ships built-in file, shell, and web tools, MCP server support, and GitHub workflow integration.
Why it's interesting
Of the big-lab coding CLIs, this is the fully open one — Apache-2.0, real TypeScript source, external contributions accepted — with a free tier (60 requests/minute via a Google account) that makes agentic coding costless to try.
Use cases
- Terminal-based agentic coding and codebase Q&A
- Ops automation with MCP extensions
- Free-tier experimentation with agent workflows
Who it's for
Developers at any budget; Google Cloud and Vertex users
Setup
Easy. Node.js 20+ via npm or Homebrew; Google login or API key
Limitations & cautions
Works best with Gemini models only. On the consumer free tier, data may be used for training — check your auth mode. Standard prompt-injection cautions for web and MCP tools.
Editorial takeaway
The cleanest open-source counterpoint to proprietary coding agents, and the easiest way to feel what agentic coding is without spending a cent.