Gemini CLI

The gemini-cli provider delegates execution to the local gemini binary (Google Gemini CLI). It uses native-agent execution, allowing the agent to read and modify your codebase using its own built-in tools.

Prerequisites

• Google Gemini CLI installed and on your PATH
• At least one form of Google authentication configured

Verify the binary is available:

which gemini

Authentication

gemini-cli checks for credentials in the following order:

1. GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable
2. GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable
3. GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable (service account)
4. Application Default Credentials via gcloud (~/.config/gcloud)

Set a key in .corydora/.env.local:

GEMINI_API_KEY=AIza...

Or authenticate through the gcloud CLI for ADC:

gcloud auth application-default login

corydora doctor reports this check as gemini-cli-auth. Passing results:

gemini-cli-binary   ✓  Google Gemini CLI binary detected.
gemini-cli-auth     ✓  Google credentials detected in the environment.

If gcloud ADC is configured but no environment variable is set:

gemini-cli-auth     ?  gcloud config exists; Gemini CLI may be authenticated through ADC.

Models

Model	Notes
gemini-2.5-pro	Default. Best reasoning and code quality.
gemini-2.5-flash	Faster and more cost-efficient.

Execution mode

gemini-cli uses native-agent execution. Corydora passes the prompt via --prompt and controls the agent's permissions through --sandbox and --approval-mode.

Scan phase — sandboxed with --approval-mode default, which restricts the agent to read-only actions:

gemini \
  --model gemini-2.5-pro \
  --sandbox true \
  --approval-mode default \
  --output-format text \
  --prompt "<prompt>"

Fix phase — sandboxed with --approval-mode auto_edit, which allows the agent to apply edits automatically:

gemini \
  --model gemini-2.5-pro \
  --sandbox true \
  --approval-mode auto_edit \
  --output-format text \
  --prompt "<prompt>"

The sandbox flag keeps all file operations scoped to the working directory.

Example configuration

{
  "runtime": {
    "provider": "gemini-cli",
    "model": "gemini-2.5-pro"
  }
}

To use Flash for faster iteration:

{
  "runtime": {
    "provider": "gemini-cli",
    "model": "gemini-2.5-flash"
  }
}

Troubleshooting

Binary not found

gemini-cli-binary   ✗  Google Gemini CLI binary not found.

Install the Gemini CLI and ensure it is on your PATH. See the Gemini CLI repository for installation instructions.

No credentials detected

gemini-cli-auth     ✗  No Gemini or Google credentials detected.

Set GEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY in .corydora/.env.local, or run gcloud auth application-default login.

ADC config present but status unknown

Corydora detects ~/.config/gcloud but cannot verify the session without invoking the CLI. Run gcloud auth application-default print-access-token to confirm the ADC session is valid.