Gemini CLI vs Qwen Code

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

Why Qwen Code?

• Agentic out of the box — Auto-Memory, Auto-Skills, SubAgents, Agent Teams, and MCP. Dynamic workflows, zero setup.
• Open-source, inside and out — The framework and the Qwen models are open-source. They evolve together. No vendor lock-in.
• Multi-protocol — Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Qwen APIs. Any third-party provider or local model (Ollama / vLLM). Switch at runtime.
• Beyond the terminal — IDE plugins, Desktop app, Web UI, SDKs, and chat integrations (Telegram / DingTalk / WeChat / Feishu).

[!TIP]
Qwen Code is actively iterating on itself — using its own agent and models to file issues, submit PRs, review code, and run tests. Powered by the community, driven by AI.

Installation

Looking for Qwen Code 1.0 Preview? Get started here. The instructions below are for the main version.

Linux / macOS:

curl -fsSL https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen-standalone.sh | bash

Windows:

irm https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen-standalone.ps1 | iex

Restart your terminal after installation to ensure environment variables take effect.

npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code@latest

brew install qwen-code

Quick Start

Open a terminal in your project and start Qwen Code:

cd /path/to/your-project
qwen

Inside the session, run /auth and choose Qwen Account with Subscription to sign in with your Plus or Pro subscription, or configure a provider with an API key. Then try:

Explain this repository and show me where to start.

See the Authentication Guide and Settings Reference for detailed setup.

How to Use Qwen Code

Choose the interface that fits your workflow:

For automation and custom integrations:

• Headless — Run qwen -p "..." in scripts, CI/CD, or batch jobs.
• SDKs — Build with TypeScript, Python, or Java.
• Daemon — Run qwen serve to connect clients over HTTP + SSE (ACP). (experimental) Daemon guide.
• Computer Use — Set up native MCP tools or Node REPL + SDK in Qwen Code, Claude Code, or Codex.

import asyncio

from qwen_code_sdk import is_sdk_result_message, query

async def main() -> None:
    result = query(
        "Summarize the repository layout.",
        {
            "cwd": "/path/to/project",
            "path_to_qwen_executable": "qwen",
        },
    )

    async for message in result:
        if is_sdk_result_message(message):
            print(message["result"])

asyncio.run(main())

Daemon Mode

Run Qwen Code as a long-lived service when you want browser, editor, SDK, and automation clients to share agent sessions without each starting a separate process. The daemon provides the built-in Web Shell and an HTTP + SSE API, supports multiple workspaces, and lets clients reconnect to active sessions.

Start it in the foreground and open the Web Shell:

qwen serve --open

The default address is http://127.0.0.1:4170. To run and manage it in the background instead:

qwen daemon start
qwen daemon status
qwen daemon logs -f
qwen daemon stop

By default, the daemon listens on loopback without bearer authentication; any local process that can reach it can use the full API, including code execution. On shared or untrusted hosts, set QWEN_SERVER_TOKEN and use --require-auth. See the Daemon guide for workspaces, authentication, remote access, and the API.

Capabilities

If you know Claude Code, you already know Qwen Code — and then some. We've put significant effort into bringing Qwen Code to feature parity with Claude Code, improving both breadth and reliability across the board.

Qwen Code Evaluation

On SWE-bench Verified, seven Qwen Code versions scored 76.40%–77.80% on average using the same Qwen 3.7 Max model (500 tasks, three trials per version).

Full results and evaluation configuration →

Ecosystem

• Qwen Code Desktop — Official desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux

• AionUi — A modern GUI for command-line AI tools including Qwen Code

• Gemini CLI Desktop — A cross-platform desktop/web/mobile UI for Qwen Code

• qwen-audio-agent — Realtime full-duplex voice frontend for Qwen Code over ACP — talk hands-free with barge-in and a local wake word

• 🦞 Qwen Code Claw — Let other agents (Claude, Codex, etc.) delegate coding tasks to Qwen Code via ACP. Paste this prompt into your agent:

Use Qwen Code as a coding agent. First, fetch and read this skill reference:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QwenLM/qwen-code/refs/heads/main/.qwen/skills/qwen-code-claw/SKILL.md
Then follow the instructions inside to install, authenticate, and use Qwen Code via acpx for all coding tasks.

• Aliyun Model Studio CLI — Official CLI for Aliyun's AI platform (bailian-cli). Extends Qwen Code with image/video generation, knowledge retrieval, app orchestration, and model deployment

Privacy

See the Terms of Service and Privacy Notice, including Chrome extension and Browser Use data handling.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Acknowledgments

This project was originally based on Google Gemini CLI v0.8.2. We gratefully acknowledge the Gemini CLI team's excellent work. Starting from Qwen Code v0.1, we stopped syncing with upstream and began independent development as a multi-protocol, multi-platform agent framework with deep integrations for Qwen models and beyond.