Crush vs Gemini CLI

Crush

Your new coding bestie, now available in your favourite terminal.
Your tools, your code, and your workflows, wired into your LLM of choice.

终端里的编程新搭档，
无缝接入你的工具、代码与工作流，全面兼容主流 LLM 模型。

Features

• Multi-Model: choose from a wide range of LLMs or add your own via OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible APIs
• Flexible: switch LLMs mid-session while preserving context
• Session-Based: maintain multiple work sessions and contexts per project
• LSP-Enhanced: Crush uses LSPs for additional context, just like you do
• Extensible: add capabilities via MCPs (http, stdio, and sse)
• Works Everywhere: first-class support in every terminal on macOS, Linux, Windows (PowerShell and WSL), Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD
• Industrial Grade: built on the Charm ecosystem, powering 25k+ applications, from leading open source projects to business-critical infrastructure

Installation

Use a package manager:

## Homebrew
brew install charmbracelet/tap/crush

## NPM (macOS, Linux, and Windows)
npm install -g @charmland/crush

## Arch Linux (btw)
yay -S crush

## Nix
nix run github:numtide/nix-ai-tools#crush

## FreeBSD
pkg install crush

Windows users:

## Winget
winget install charmbracelet.crush

## Scoop
scoop bucket add charm https://github.com/charmbracelet/scoop-bucket.git
scoop install crush

## Add the NUR channel.
nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NUR/archive/main.tar.gz nur
nix-channel --update

## Get Crush in a Nix shell.
nix-shell -p '(import <nur> { pkgs = import <nixpkgs> {}; }).repos.charmbracelet.crush'

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    nur.url = "github:nix-community/NUR";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, nur, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.your-hostname = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        nur.modules.nixos.default
        nur.repos.charmbracelet.modules.crush
        {
          programs.crush = {
            enable = true;
            settings = {
              providers = {
                openai = {
                  id = "openai";
                  name = "OpenAI";
                  base_url = "https://api.openai.com/v1";
                  type = "openai";
                  api_key = "sk-fake123456789abcdef...";
                  models = [
                    {
                      id = "gpt-5.6-sol";
                      name = "GPT-5.6 Sol";
                    }
                  ];
                };
              };
              lsp = {
                go = { command = "gopls"; enabled = true; };
                nix = { command = "nil"; enabled = true; };
              };
              options = {
                context_paths = [ "/etc/nixos/configuration.nix" ];
                tui = { compact_mode = true; };
                debug = false;
              };
            };
          };
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://repo.charm.sh/apt/gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/charm.gpg] https://repo.charm.sh/apt/ * *" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/charm.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install crush

echo '[charm]
name=Charm
baseurl=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://repo.charm.sh/yum/gpg.key' | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/charm.repo
sudo yum install crush

Or, download it:

• Packages are available in Debian and RPM formats
• Binaries are available for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD

Or just install it with Go:

go install github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest

On illumos (OpenIndiana, OmniOS), the command above works as-is. Only native
OS notifications are unavailable there; terminal-based notifications (OSC) and
the terminal bell still work. On Oracle Solaris, add -tags sqlite3_dotlk so
the local database uses dot-file locking:

go install -tags sqlite3_dotlk github.com/charmbracelet/crush@latest

[!WARNING]
Productivity may increase when using Crush and you may find yourself nerd
sniped when first using the application. If the symptoms persist, join the
Slack or Discord and nerd snipe the rest of us.

Getting Started

The quickest way to get started is to choose a Hyper model from the
little model picker. Follow the steps to authenticate and you're ready to go.

Hyper, from Charm, is the official model provider for Crush. It’s
built on open-weight models and is optimized for Crush, with an emphasis
on high-quality inference. There are subscription and prepaid options, including zero data retention
(ZDR). It's also GDPR compliant!

More on Hyper.

API Keys

You can also use Crush with many other providers such as Anthopic, OpenAI,
Gemini, OpenRouter and so on. Press ctrl+l to open the model picker,
choose the provider of your choice, and paste your API key.

That said, you can also set environment variables for preferred providers:

Also note that Crush can support nearly any provider, including
Local Models. For more info see
Custom Providers below.

By the Way

Is there a provider you’d like to see in Crush? Is there an existing model that needs an update?

Crush’s default model listing is managed in Catwalk, a community-supported, open source repository of Crush-compatible models, and you’re welcome to contribute.

Configuration

[!TIP]
Crush ships with a builtin skill for configuring itself. Most of the time
you can just tell what you want it to configure and it will get the job done.

Crush runs great with no configuration. That said, if you do need or want to
customize Crush, you can, with a crushrc.

A crushrc is just Bash with some Crush-specific builtins. It’s a lot like
a .bashrc, just for your Crush. Because Crush has a native, built-in Bash
interpreter, Bash-based config works identically across all platforms, including
Windows.

For example:

## Add Ollama.
provider add ollama --type ollama --base-url "http://localhost:11434/v1"

## Register a model on Ollama.
model add ollama/llama3.3 --name "Llama 3.3" --context-window 128000

## Auto-approve some tools.
permissions allow view edit

## Include some other file on a specific machine.
if [[ $HOSTNAME == "babysquid" ]]; then
    source ~/my-stuff/babysquid.sh
fi

## Add an MCP server, with a GitHub API token stored in 1Password.
mcp add github \
  --type http \
  --url "https://api.github.com/mcp/" \
  --header Authorization "Bearer $(op read 'op://my-secret-key')"

Configuration can be added either local to the project itself, or globally,
with the following priority:

(Crush respects the XDG Base Directory Specification, so your paths
may differ depending on your XDG_CONFIG_HOME value. Data directories such as
~/.local/share/crush and %LOCALAPPDATA%\crush contain JSON state only; Crush
does not execute a crushrc from them.)

What about the old JSON format? It’s still supported, but it should be
considered deprecated. See: the config docs for details.

[!TIP]
You can override the user and data config locations by setting:

• CRUSH_GLOBAL_CONFIG
• CRUSH_GLOBAL_DATA
• CRUSH_DATA_DIR (overrides the per-project .crush directory)

As an additional note, Crush also stores ephemeral data, such as application
state, in one additional location. This is state and should not be edited by
hand, nor should it be considered configuration.

## Unix
$HOME/.local/share/crush/crush.json

## Windows
%LOCALAPPDATA%\crush\crush.json

A note on security

Both crushrc and crush.json are trusted code; crushrc runs in a full
shell, and any $(...) in crush.json runs at load time. Don't launch Crush
in a directory whose config you haven't reviewed, and don't randomly source
files from the internet into your config.

Environment Variables

The top-level env field sets environment variables at startup, before
providers are configured. This is useful for variables that affect provider
authentication (e.g. the AWS SDK credential chain) without wrapping the
crush command in a shell script or exporting them in your shell profile:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "env": {
    "AWS_PROFILE": "my-sso-profile"
  }
}

Values support the same $VAR and $(command) expansion as other config
fields, so you can reference existing environment variables or shell out for
a value.

Themes

Crush ships with built-in color themes.

Switching Themes

Open the command palette with ctrl+p, select Themes, and browse the
list. The UI previews each theme as you navigate, and pressing enter
confirms the selection. Press esc to cancel and revert.

Editing Themes

Open Themes, highlight the theme to customize, and press ctrl+e.
Changes preview live as you type. Press enter or ctrl+s to save, or esc
to cancel and revert. User themes are stored globally in the Crush config
directory under themes/.

You can also select a theme directly in your config with active_theme:

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "options": {
    "tui": {
      "active_theme": "gruvbox-dark"
    }
  }
}

Custom theme palettes are stored as JSON files in the global theme directory.
For example, ~/.config/crush/themes/my-theme.json:

{
  "base": "gruvbox-dark",
  "primary": "#ff6b6b",
  "bg_base": "#1a1a2e"
}

Select it by setting active_theme to my-theme or from the Themes
dialog.

Built-In Themes

LSPs

Crush can use LSPs for additional context to help inform its decisions, just
like you would. LSPs can be added manually like so:

## crushrc

lsp add go --command "gopls" --env "GOTOOLCHAIN go1.24.5"
lsp add typescript --command "typescript-language-server" --args --stdio
lsp add nix --command "nil"

MCPs

Crush also supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers through three transport
types: stdio for command-line servers, http for HTTP endpoints, and sse
for Server-Sent Events.

## crushrc

## Add a local MCP server that runs a Node.js script.
mcp add filesystem --command node --args /path/to/mcp-server.js \
  --timeout 10 --disabled-tools some-tool-name --env NODE_ENV production

## Add a GitHub MCP server that uses an API token.
mcp add github --type http --url https://api.github.com/mcp/ \
  --timeout 10 --header Authorization "Bearer $GH_PAT" \
  --disabled-tools create_issue --disabled-tools create_pull_request

## Add a streaming MCP server that uses SSE.
mcp add streaming-service --type sse --url "https://example.com/mcp/sse" \
  --timeout 10 --header API-Key "$API_KEY"

MCP OAuth

HTTP and SSE MCP servers that require OAuth can use Crush's built-in
authorization-code flow instead of a static Authorization header. Set
"oauth": true to enable it:

{
  "mcp": {
    "linear": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://mcp.linear.app/mcp",
      "oauth": true
    }
  }
}

Pre-registered clients

Some servers (GitHub, Slack) don't support dynamic client registration.
For those, register an OAuth app with the provider and supply the
credentials directly. All values support shell expansion:

{
  "mcp": {
    "github": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/mcp/",
      "oauth": true,
      "oauth_client_id": "Iv1.abc123def456",
      "oauth_client_secret": "$GITHUB_MCP_SECRET",
      "oauth_callback_port": 40704
    }
  }
}

When oauth_client_id is set, Crush skips dynamic client registration
and authenticates as the specified client. When omitted, Crush attempts
dynamic registration automatically (works with Linear, Notion, and other
servers that support RFC 7591).

Sessionless servers

Some HTTP MCP servers are sessionless — they never issue a
Mcp-Session-Id and reject the subscriptions/listen stream Crush opens
for list-changed notifications, which would otherwise break the
connection. Crush auto-detects known sessionless servers (GitHub MCP,
api.githubcopilot.com/mcp), so those need no extra configuration.

For other sessionless servers, mark them explicitly with
"sessionless": true (or --sessionless true in crushrc); set it to
false to force the default behavior for an auto-detected URL. The
tradeoff is that a sessionless server won't push live
tool/prompt/resource list-changed notifications.

Hooks

Crush has preliminary support for hooks. For details, see
the hook guide.

Sharing a workspace across clients

When Crush is run against a shared backend (for example two TUIs talking to
the same crush serve), clients are grouped into workspaces keyed by
their resolved --cwd. Two clients with the same --cwd join the same
underlying workspace, so they share the session list, message history,
permission queue, LSP, and MCP state.

Joining is implicit: pointing a second client at the same working directory
attaches it to the existing workspace. Each new invocation, however, starts
in its own fresh session by default. To pick up the conversation another
client already has open, use the session manager (the session picker) and
select it. Sessions surface two signals there:

• IsBusy is set while an agent turn is in flight for that session.
• AttachedClients reports how many clients are currently viewing it.

A non-zero AttachedClients (often combined with IsBusy) is the cue that a
session is "in progress" on another client and joining it will mirror that
view live.

The first client to create a workspace fixes its process-wide flags. In
particular, --yolo and --debug follow a first-wins rule: later
clients that arrive at the same --cwd with different values for those
flags do not change the running workspace. A debug log line is emitted
recording the mismatch, and the workspace keeps the flags it was created
with.

A workspace lives as long as at least one client has an SSE event stream
open against it. When the last stream disconnects, the workspace is torn
down. There is a short grace window right after POST /v1/workspaces so a
client that has created the workspace but not yet opened its event stream
does not get reaped before it can attach.

Global context files

Crush automatically includes two files for cross-project instructions. Think of
these are personal additions to the system prompt.

• ~/.config/crush/CRUSH.md: Crush-specific rules that would confuse other
  agentic coding tools. If you only use Crush, this is the only one you need to
  edit.
• ~/.config/AGENTS.md: generic instructions that other coding tools might
  read. Avoid referring to Crush-specific features or workflows here. You
  probably only care about this if you use multiple agentic coding tools and
  want to share instructions between them.

You can customize these paths with option global-context-path. Repeat the
command to add multiple paths:

## Load a single markdown file.
option global-context-path "~/path/to/custom/context/file.md"

## Recursively load all Markdown files in the folder.
option global-context-path "/full/path/to/folder/of/files/"

Ignoring Files

Crush respects .gitignore files by default, but you can also create a
.crushignore file to specify additional files and directories that Crush
should ignore. This is useful for excluding files that you want in version
control but don't want Crush to consider when providing context.

The .crushignore file uses the same syntax as .gitignore and can be placed
in the root of your project or in subdirectories.

Allowing Tools

By default, Crush will ask you for permission before running tool calls. If
you'd like, you can allow tools to be executed without prompting you for
permissions. Use this with care.

permissions allow view ls grep edit mcp_context7_get-library-doc

The bash tool additionally runs a small set of read-only commands (ls,
pwd, git status, git log, …) without prompting. Crush parses the command
to decide, so it applies only when the whole command is provably inert: a
redirection, a variable assignment, a command substitution, a pipeline, or an
argument that mutates state (git branch -D, git remote set-url) all fall
back to the normal permission prompt.

Disabling Built-In Tools

You can also deny tools, hiding then from the agent entirely:

permissions deny bash sourcegraph

To disable tools from MCP servers, see the MCP config section.

You only live once

You can also skip all permission prompts completely by running Crush with the
--yolo flag. Be very, very careful with this feature.

Disabling Skills

You can prevent Crush from using certain skills entirely. Disabled skills are
hidden from the agent, including builtin skills and skills discovered from
disk.

option disable-skill crush-config

Agent Skills

Crush supports the Agent Skills open standard for
extending agent capabilities with reusable skill packages. Skills are folders
containing a SKILL.md file with instructions that Crush can discover and
activate on demand.

The global paths we looks for skills are:

• $CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/agents/skills or ~/.config/agents/skills/
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/crush/skills or ~/.config/crush/skills/
• ~/.agents/skills/
• ~/.claude/skills/
• On Windows, we also look at
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\agents\skills\ or %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\agents\skills\
  • %LOCALAPPDATA%\crush\skills\ or %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\crush\skills\
• Additional paths configured via options.skills_paths

On top of that, we also load skills in your project from the following
relative paths:

• .agents/skills
• .crush/skills
• .claude/skills
• .cursor/skills

Or load directories of skills specifically in your config:

option skill-path "$HOME/squid-skills" "./other-skills"

You can get started with example skills from anthropics/skills:

## Unix
mkdir -p ~/.config/crush/skills
cd ~/.config/crush/skills
git clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git _temp
mv _temp/skills/* . && rm -rf _temp

## Windows (PowerShell)
mkdir -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\crush\skills"
cd "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\crush\skills"
git clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git _temp
mv _temp/skills/* . ; rm -r -force _temp

User-Invocable Skills

Skills can be made invocable as commands from the commands palette
(ctrl+p). Add user-invocable: true to the skill's YAML
frontmatter:

---
name: my-hot-skill
description: A skill that can be invoked as a command.
user-invocable: true
---

User-invocable skills appear in the commands palette with a user: or project: prefix:

• Skills from global directories show as user:skill-name
• Skills from project directories show as project:skill-name

When invoked, the skill's instructions are loaded into the conversation context.

To prevent the model from auto-triggering a skill (while still allowing user invocation), add disable-model-invocation: true:

---
name: my-skill
description: Only invocable by users, not the model.
user-invocable: true
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Skills with disable-model-invocation won't appear in the model's available skills list but can still be invoked manually by users.

Desktop notifications

Crush sends desktop notifications when a tool call requires permission and when
the agent finishes its turn. They're only sent when the terminal window isn't
focused and your terminal supports reporting the focus state.

## Choose auto, native, osc, bell, or disabled.
option notifications disabled

auto uses native notifications locally and OSC notifications over SSH when
supported.

Initialization

When you initialize a project, Crush analyzes your codebase and creates
a context file that helps it work more effectively in future sessions. By
default, this file is named AGENTS.md, but you can customize the name and
location with the initialize-as option:

## crushrc
option initialize-as AGENTS.md

This is useful if you prefer a different naming convention or want to place the
file in a specific directory (e.g., CRUSH.md or docs/LLMs.md). Crush will
fill the file with project-specific context like build commands, code patterns,
and conventions it discovered during initialization.

Attribution Settings

By default, Crush adds attribution information to Git commits and pull requests
it creates. You can customize this behavior with option commands:

option attribution-trailer-style co-authored-by
option attribution-generated-with true

• trailer_style: Controls the attribution trailer added to commit messages
  (default: assisted-by)
  • assisted-by: Adds Assisted-by: Crush:[ModelID] as specified in the convention
  • co-authored-by: Adds Co-Authored-By: Crush <crush@charm.land>
  • none: No attribution trailer
• generated_with: When true (default), adds 💘 Generated with Crush line to
  commit messages and PR descriptions

Custom Providers

Crush supports custom provider configurations for both OpenAI-compatible and
Anthropic-compatible APIs.

[!NOTE]
The provider type describes the API format the provider speaks. Make sure
to choose the right one to ensure the best experience!

• responses should be used when proxying or routing requests through OpenAI.
• completions should be used when using non-OpenAI providers that have OpenAI-compatible APIs.
• messages should be used for Anthropic-compatible APIs.

Legacy values (openai, openai-compat, anthropic) are still accepted and
migrated automatically.

OpenAI-Compatible APIs

Here’s an example configuration for Deepseek, which uses an OpenAI-compatible
API. Don't forget to set DEEPSEEK_API_KEY in your environment.

provider add deepseek --type completions \
  --base-url "https://api.deepseek.com/v1" \
  --api-key "$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"

model add deepseek/deepseek-chat \
  --name "Deepseek V3" \
  --context-window 64000 \
  --default-max-tokens 5000 \
  --price-input 0.27 \
  --price-output 1.1 \
  --price-cache-create 1.1 \
  --price-cache-hit 0.07

Anthropic-Compatible APIs

Custom Anthropic-compatible providers follow this format:

provider add custom-anthropic \
  --type messages \
  --base-url "https://api.anthropic.com/v1" \
  --api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --extra-header anthropic-version 2023-06-01

model add custom-anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514 \
  --name "Claude Sonnet 4" \
  --context-window 200000 \
  --default-max-tokens 50000 \
  --thinking toggleable \
  --supports-images true \
  --price-input 3 \
  --price-output 15 \
  --price-cache-create 3.75 \
  --price-cache-hit 0.3

Amazon Bedrock

Crush currently supports running Anthropic models through Bedrock, with caching disabled.

A Bedrock provider appears once Crush can find AWS credentials. You can
authenticate in one of two ways:

API key. Set AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK to a Bedrock API key. This is the
simplest option and never expires mid-session.

AWS credential chain (SSO, profiles, access keys). Configure AWS the usual
way with aws configure or aws configure sso. Crush picks up whatever the
AWS SDK credential chain resolves, including AWS_PROFILE, AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
/ AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, or an SSO session. To select a specific profile,
set AWS_PROFILE in your shell (AWS_PROFILE=myprofile crush) or in the
top-level env config.

If you authenticate via AWS SSO, your session expires periodically. Set
aws_auth_refresh to a command that refreshes it. When Bedrock returns a
credential error, Crush runs the command, then retries the request in place
(no duplicate messages, no manual restart):

{
  "$schema": "https://charm.land/crush.json",
  "env": {
    "AWS_PROFILE": "my-sso-profile"
  },
  "providers": {
    "bedrock": {
      "aws_auth_refresh": "aws sso login --profile my-sso-profile"
    },
    "bedrock-europe": {
      "aws_auth_refresh": "aws sso login --profile my-eu-sso-profile"
    }
  }
}

• aws_auth_refresh — shell command run when AWS credentials expire (e.g. aws sso login)

Vertex AI Platform

Vertex AI will appear in the list of available providers when VERTEXAI_PROJECT and VERTEXAI_LOCATION are set. You will also need to be authenticated:

$ gcloud auth application-default login

To add specific models to the configuration, configure as such:

## crushrc — authentication still comes from gcloud and the VERTEXAI_* env vars.
provider add vertexai

model add vertexai/claude-sonnet-4@20250514 \
  --name "VertexAI Sonnet 4" \
  --context-window 200000 \
  --default-max-tokens 50000 \
  --thinking toggleable \
  --supports-images true \
  --price-input 3 \
  --price-output 15 \
  --price-cache-create 3.75 \
  --price-cache-hit 0.3

Local Models

Crush can auto-discovers models from local providers. Add a custom provider
with type set to llamacpp, omlx, lmstudio, litellm, or ollama
and leave out the models list. Crush will populate the model list
automatically.

## Piece of cake.
provider add ollama \
  --name Ollama \
  --type ollama \
  --base-url "http://localhost:11434/v1/"

For llama.cpp (llama-server), point at the server's base URL:

provider add llamacpp \
  --name "llama.cpp" \
  --type llamacpp \
  --base-url "http://localhost:2222"

Manual Model Configuration

You can still list models explicitly. User-defined models always take
precedence over discovered ones, and any fields you set won't be overwritten
by auto-discovery. Auto discovery will run if the model list is empty for any
openai-compat provider or if you pass "discover_models": true it will merge
the found models with your hand configured ones.

## crushrc
provider add ollama \
  --name Ollama \
  --type ollama \
  --base-url "http://localhost:11434/v1/" \
  --discover-models true

model add ollama/qwen3:30b \
  --name "Qwen 3 30B" \
  --context-window 256000 \
  --default-max-tokens 20000

The --discover-models true flag merges discovered models with the one above;
your explicit model fields win on conflicts.

Logging

Sometimes you need to look at logs. Luckily, Crush logs all sorts of
stuff. Logs are stored in ./.crush/logs/crush.log relative to the project.

The CLI also contains some helper commands to make perusing recent logs easier:

## Print the last 1000 lines
crush logs

## Print the last 500 lines
crush logs --tail 500

## Follow logs in real time
crush logs --follow

Want more logging? Run crush with the --debug flag, or enable it in your
crushrc:

## crushrc
option debug true
option debug-lsp true

Provider Auto-Updates

By default, Crush automatically checks for the latest and greatest list of
providers and models from Catwalk,
the open source Crush provider database. This means that when new providers and
models are available, or when model metadata changes, Crush automatically
updates your local configuration.

Custom provider catalog

You can also override Catwalk default URL (for testing, using a fork).

You can do so by setting the CATWALK_URL environment variable. (e.g. export CATWALK_URL=http://localhost:8000)

Disabling automatic provider updates

For those with restricted internet access, or those who prefer to work in
air-gapped environments, this might not be what you want, and this feature can
be disabled.

To disable automatic provider updates in your crushrc:

option provider-auto-update false

Or set the CRUSH_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE environment variable:

export CRUSH_DISABLE_PROVIDER_AUTO_UPDATE=1

Manually updating providers

Manually updating providers is possible with the crush update-providers
command:

## Update providers remotely from Catwalk.
crush update-providers

## Update providers from a custom Catwalk base URL.
crush update-providers https://example.com/

## Update providers from a local file.
crush update-providers /path/to/local-providers.json

## Reset providers to the embedded version, embedded at crush at build time.
crush update-providers embedded

## For more info:
crush update-providers --help

Metrics

Crush records pseudonymous usage metrics (tied to a device-specific hash),
which maintainers rely on to inform development and support priorities. The
metrics include solely usage metadata; prompts and responses are NEVER
collected.

Details on exactly what’s collected are in the source code (here
and here).

Also, when you use Crush with Hyper, your Crush usage metrics may
be associated with your Hyper account to help us improve the service and
diagnose issues. For more information, see the Hyper Privacy Policy.

Either way, you can opt out of metrics collection at any time by setting
the following in your environment:

export CRUSH_DISABLE_METRICS=1

Crush also respects the DO_NOT_TRACK convention
which can be enabled via export DO_NOT_TRACK=1.

Q&A

Why is clipboard copy and paste not working?

Installing an extra tool might be needed on Unix-like environments.

Contributing

See the contributing guide.

Whatcha think?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this project. Need help? We gotchu. You can find us on:

• Twitter
• Slack
• Discord
• The Fediverse
• Bluesky

License

FSL-1.1-MIT

Part of Charm.

Charm热爱开源 • Charm loves open source

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