Aider vs Gemini CLI

AI Pair Programming in Your Terminal

Aider lets you pair program with LLMs to start a new project or build on your existing codebase.

Features

Cloud and local LLMs

Aider works best with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1 & Chat V3, OpenAI o1, o3-mini & GPT-4o, but can connect to almost any LLM, including local models.

Maps your codebase

Aider makes a map of your entire codebase, which helps it work well in larger projects.

100+ code languages

Aider works with most popular programming languages: python, javascript, rust, ruby, go, cpp, php, html, css, and dozens more.

Git integration

Aider automatically commits changes with sensible commit messages. Use familiar git tools to easily diff, manage and undo AI changes.

Use in your IDE

Use aider from within your favorite IDE or editor. Ask for changes by adding comments to your code and aider will get to work.

Images & web pages

Add images and web pages to the chat to provide visual context, screenshots, reference docs, etc.

Voice-to-code

Speak with aider about your code! Request new features, test cases or bug fixes using your voice and let aider implement the changes.

Linting & testing

Automatically lint and test your code every time aider makes changes. Aider can fix problems detected by your linters and test suites.

Copy/paste to web chat

Work with any LLM via its web chat interface. Aider streamlines copy/pasting code context and edits back and forth with a browser.

Getting Started

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

## Change directory into your codebase
cd /to/your/project

## DeepSeek
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=<key>

## Claude 3.7 Sonnet
aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=<key>

## o3-mini
aider --model o3-mini --api-key openai=<key>

See the installation instructions and usage documentation for more details.

More Information

Documentation

• Installation Guide
• Usage Guide
• Tutorial Videos
• Connecting to LLMs
• Configuration Options
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ

Community & Resources

• LLM Leaderboards
• GitHub Repository
• Discord Community
• Release notes
• Blog

Kind Words From Users

• "My life has changed... Aider... It's going to rock your world." — Eric S. Raymond on X
• "The best free open source AI coding assistant." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "The best AI coding assistant so far." — Matthew Berman on YouTube
• "Aider ... has easily quadrupled my coding productivity." — SOLAR_FIELDS on Hacker News
• "It's a cool workflow... Aider's ergonomics are perfect for me." — qup on Hacker News
• "It's really like having your senior developer live right in your Git repo - truly amazing!" — rappster on GitHub
• "What an amazing tool. It's incredible." — valyagolev on GitHub
• "Aider is such an astounding thing!" — cgrothaus on GitHub
• "It was WAY faster than I would be getting off the ground and making the first few working versions." — Daniel Feldman on X
• "THANK YOU for Aider! It really feels like a glimpse into the future of coding." — derwiki on Hacker News
• "It's just amazing. It is freeing me to do things I felt were out my comfort zone before." — Dougie on Discord
• "This project is stellar." — funkytaco on GitHub
• "Amazing project, definitely the best AI coding assistant I've used." — joshuavial on GitHub
• "I absolutely love using Aider ... It makes software development feel so much lighter as an experience." — principalideal0 on Discord
• "I have been recovering from ... surgeries ... aider ... has allowed me to continue productivity." — codeninja on Reddit
• "I am an aider addict. I'm getting so much more work done, but in less time." — dandandan on Discord
• "Aider... blows everything else out of the water hands down, there's no competition whatsoever." — SystemSculpt on Discord
• "Aider is amazing, coupled with Sonnet 3.5 it's quite mind blowing." — Josh Dingus on Discord
• "Hands down, this is the best AI coding assistant tool so far." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "[Aider] changed my daily coding workflows. It's mind-blowing how ...(it)... can change your life." — maledorak on Discord
• "Best agent for actual dev work in existing codebases." — Nick Dobos on X
• "One of my favorite pieces of software. Blazing trails on new paradigms!" — Chris Wall on X
• "Aider has been revolutionary for me and my work." — Starry Hope on X
• "Try aider! One of the best ways to vibe code." — Chris Wall on X
• "Freaking love Aider." — hztar on Hacker News
• "Aider is hands down the best. And it's free and opensource." — AriyaSavakaLurker on Reddit
• "Aider is also my best friend." — jzn21 on Reddit
• "Try Aider, it's worth it." — jorgejhms on Reddit
• "I like aider :)" — Chenwei Cui on X
• "Aider is the precision tool of LLM code gen... Minimal, thoughtful and capable of surgical changes ... while keeping the developer in control." — Reilly Sweetland on X
• "Cannot believe aider vibe coded a 650 LOC feature across service and cli today in 1 shot." - autopoietist on Discord
• "Oh no the secret is out! Yes, Aider is the best coding tool around. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone." — Joshua D Vander Hook on X
• "thanks to aider, i have started and finished three personal projects within the last two days" — joseph stalzyn on X
• "Been using aider as my daily driver for over a year ... I absolutely love the tool, like beyond words." — koleok on Discord
• "Aider ... is the tool to benchmark against." — BeetleB on Hacker News
• "aider is really cool" — kache on X

Gemini CLI

[!IMPORTANT]
Read before installing — Gemini CLI status & tool guide

• Enterprise Code Assist only: Designed for Gemini Code Assist Standard / Enterprise licenses and Code Assist for GitHub on Google Cloud (your access remains unchanged).
• No free tier or Google AI plans: Free individual access and Google AI Pro / Ultra (Google One) moved to Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026 (transition post).
• Not optimized for Gemini 4+: Not tuned for the Gemini 4 series (for example, Gemini 4 Argon) or future releases in this or later generations.
• Not for model benchmarks: Don't use Gemini CLI to benchmark Gemini models—its harness isn't tuned for Gemini 4+ and produces unrepresentative scores.

Which Google CLI do you need?

Tool	Best for	Links
Antigravity CLI (agy)	Interactive multi-agent coding terminal. Use for Gemini 4 Argon+, free / Google AI Pro & Ultra accounts, or Google Cloud.	Download · Migrate · Argon post
Gemini API CLI (gemini-api)	Stateless API CLI (not a coding harness). Gives agents (agy, Claude Code, Codex), scripts, and CI direct commands for Gemini models, media gen, file analysis, and managed agents.	GitHub · Releases · API docs
Gemini CLI (gemini, this repo)	Organizations with Gemini Code Assist Standard / Enterprise or Code Assist for GitHub on Google Cloud (plus legacy paid API / Vertex keys).	Docs

Gemini CLI (gemini) is an open-source terminal agent maintained for enterprise
Gemini Code Assist workflows on Google Cloud. Learn more in the
Gemini CLI documentation.

📦 Installation

See
Gemini CLI installation, execution, and releases
for recommended system specifications and a detailed installation guide.

Quick Install

Run instantly with npx

## Using npx (no installation required)
npx @google/gemini-cli

Install globally with npm

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Install globally with Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install gemini-cli

Install globally with MacPorts (macOS)

sudo port install gemini-cli

Install with Anaconda (for restricted environments)

## Create and activate a new environment
conda create -y -n gemini_env -c conda-forge nodejs
conda activate gemini_env

## Install Gemini CLI globally via npm (inside the environment)
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Release Channels

See Releases for more details.

Preview

New preview releases will be published each week at UTC 23:59 on Tuesdays. These
releases will not have been fully vetted and may contain regressions or other
outstanding issues. Please help us test and install with preview tag.

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@preview

Stable

• New stable releases will be published each week at UTC 20:00 on Tuesdays, this
  will be the full promotion of last week's preview release + any bug fixes
  and validations. Use latest tag.

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@latest

Nightly

• New releases will be published each day at UTC 00:00. This will be all changes
  from the main branch as represented at time of release. It should be assumed
  there are pending validations and issues. Use nightly tag.

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli@nightly

📋 Key Features

Code Understanding & Generation

• Query and edit large codebases
• Generate new apps from PDFs, images, or sketches using multimodal capabilities
• Debug issues and troubleshoot with natural language

Automation & Integration

• Automate operational tasks like querying pull requests or handling complex
  rebases
• Use MCP servers to connect new capabilities, including
  media generation with Imagen, Veo or Lyria
• Run non-interactively in scripts for workflow automation

🔐 Authentication Options

Choose the authentication method that best fits your needs:

Option 1: Sign in with Google (OAuth login using your Google Account)

When using a paid Code Assist License from your organization, remember to set the Google Cloud Project

## Set your Google Cloud Project
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="YOUR_PROJECT_ID"
gemini

Option 2: Gemini API Key

✨ Best for: Developers who need specific model control or paid tier access

Benefits:

• Model selection: Choose specific Gemini models
• Usage-based billing: Upgrade for higher limits when needed

## Get your key from https://aistudio.google.com/apikey
export GEMINI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
gemini

Option 3: Vertex AI

✨ Best for: Enterprise teams and production workloads

Benefits:

• Enterprise features: Advanced security and compliance
• Scalable: Higher rate limits with billing account
• Integration: Works with existing Google Cloud infrastructure

## Get your key from Google Cloud Console
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
export GOOGLE_GENAI_USE_VERTEXAI=true
gemini

For Google Workspace accounts and other authentication methods, see the
authentication guide.

🚀 Getting Started

Basic Usage

Start in current directory

gemini

Include multiple directories

gemini --include-directories ../lib,../docs

Use specific model

gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash

Non-interactive mode for scripts

Get a simple text response:

gemini -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase"

For more advanced scripting, including how to parse JSON and handle errors, use
the --output-format json flag to get structured output:

gemini -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase" --output-format json

For real-time event streaming (useful for monitoring long-running operations),
use --output-format stream-json to get newline-delimited JSON events:

gemini -p "Run tests and deploy" --output-format stream-json

Quick Examples

Start a new project

cd new-project/
gemini
> Write me a Discord bot that answers questions using a FAQ.md file I will provide

Analyze existing code

git clone https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
cd gemini-cli
gemini
> Give me a summary of all of the changes that went in yesterday

📚 Documentation

Getting Started

• Quickstart Guide - Get up
  and running quickly.
• Authentication Setup -
  Detailed auth configuration.
• Configuration Guide -
  Settings and customization.
• Keyboard Shortcuts -
  Productivity tips.

Core Features

• Commands Reference -
  All slash commands (/help, /chat, etc).
• Custom Commands -
  Create your own reusable commands.
• Context Files (GEMINI.md) -
  Provide persistent context to Gemini CLI.
• Checkpointing - Save
  and resume conversations.
• Token Caching -
  Optimize token usage.

Tools & Extensions

• Built-in Tools Overview
  • File System Operations
  • Shell Commands
  • Web Fetch & Search
• MCP Server Integration -
  Extend with custom tools.
• Custom Extensions -
  Build and share your own commands.

Advanced Topics

• Headless Mode (Scripting) -
  Use Gemini CLI in automated workflows.
• IDE Integration - VS
  Code companion.
• Sandboxing & Security - Safe
  execution environments.
• Trusted Folders -
  Control execution policies by folder.
• Enterprise Guide - Deploy
  and manage in a corporate environment.
• Telemetry & Monitoring -
  Usage tracking.
• Tools reference -
  Built-in tools overview.
• Local development -
  Local development tooling.

Troubleshooting & Support

• Troubleshooting Guide -
  Common issues and solutions.
• FAQ - Frequently asked
  questions.
• Use /bug command to report issues directly from the CLI.

Using MCP Servers

Configure MCP servers in ~/.gemini/settings.json to extend Gemini CLI with
custom tools:

> @github List my open pull requests
> @slack Send a summary of today's commits to #dev channel
> @database Run a query to find inactive users

See the
MCP Server Integration guide
for setup instructions.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Gemini CLI is fully open source (Apache 2.0), and we
encourage the community to:

• Report bugs and suggest features.
• Improve documentation.
• Submit code improvements.
• Share your MCP servers and extensions.

See our Contributing Guide for development setup, coding
standards, and how to submit pull requests.

Check our Official Roadmap
for planned features and priorities.

📖 Resources

• Free Course -
  Learn the basics.
• Official Roadmap - See what's coming next.
• Changelog - See recent
  notable updates.
• NPM Package - Package
  registry.
• GitHub Issues -
  Report bugs or request features.
• Security Advisories -
  Security updates.

Uninstall

See the Uninstall Guide
for removal instructions.

📄 Legal

• License: Apache License 2.0
• Terms of Service:
  Terms & Privacy
• Security: Security Policy

Built with ❤️ by Google and the open source community