Google Launches Gemini AI Tool to Attract Developers

Alphabet Inc.'s Google is adding an artificial intelligence code assistant to help developers, hoping to catch up with competing offerings such as OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code.

The Gemini CLI, short for "command line interface", will be available worldwide, according to the internet search giant. The technology is intended to simplify the complexity of traditional programming interfaces by allowing developers to interact with AI using common English. 

"With Gemini CLI, you can have a natural language conversation with your computer to solve problems, to weave complex workflows together to do way more than you could have done before," Taylor Mullen, a Google senior staff software engineer, said in a press briefing ahead of the company's announcement.

The AI agent grants access to Google's Gemini AI program via the terminal, a text-based interface where developers send commands to operate their computers.  Although the tool is essentially an AI coding helper, Google says developers can use Gemini CLI for a variety of tasks, such as creating videos or building up simple websites. 

Gemini CLI is also open source, which means that its code can be freely modified and redistributed.  The startup stated that its mission is to democratize AI coding and continuously enhance the product through user contributions.  Developers can also analyze the code to learn how it works and to ensure its security, Google claimed.

The company's TensorFlow AI engine, as well as various AI models based on its transformers, are all open source.  These are the building components that comprise today's most popular large language models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. 

In 2024, Google released a pair of open big language models known as Gemma, altering the company's normal approach of keeping its private artificial intelligence technologies hidden from the public.  The declaration on Wednesday indicates a renewed willingness to interact with independent developers aggressively.

Users can access Gemini CLI from any personal Google account, and they will receive a free Gemini Code Assist license.  The license includes access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, the company's flagship model, as well as what Google claims is the industry's most extensive set of prompts for the queries that trigger the AI. 

Users can submit 60 queries per minute and 1,000 requests per day.  Paying for the regular edition boosts the limit to 120 inquiries per minute and 1,500 queries per day, while Gemini CLI's enterprise model allows for 2,000.

"We believe that these tools will dominate the way not only developers, but all creators, work over the next decade," said Ryan J. Salva, Google's senior director of products.  "It does not matter if you are a student, a hobbyist, a freelancer, or a developer.  "You should have access to the same tools."