Mastering Gemini CLI Skill

Build headless automation and agentic workflows with Google's Gemini CLI.

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for using Google's Gemini CLI in headless and agentic scenarios. It covers:

• Approval Modes: Understanding default, auto_edit, and yolo modes
• File Permission Model: Explicit consent and visibility patterns
• Tool Selection: When to use Edit vs WriteFile vs RunShell
• smartEdit Configuration: Solving the "0 occurrences found" reliability crisis
• GEMINI.md Context Files: Project-specific agent instructions
• settings.json Hierarchy: Configuration precedence
• MCP Server Integration: Extending agents to external services
• Session Persistence: Multi-step workflows with --resume

Quick Start

# Basic headless invocation
gemini -p "Refactor auth.js to use async/await" --approval-mode auto_edit

# Pipe input for context
git diff --staged | gemini -p "Generate semantic commit message"

# JSON output for scripts
gemini -p "List TODOs in src/" --output-format json --include-directories src

When to Use This Skill

Use when:

• Building CI/CD pipelines with Gemini
• Debugging "0 occurrences found" edit failures
• Configuring --approval-mode for automation
• Creating long-running agents with --resume
• Integrating external services via Model Context Protocol

Installing with Skilz (Universal Installer)

The recommended way to install this skill across different AI coding agents is using the skilz universal installer.

Install Skilz

pip install skilz

This skill supports Agent Skill Standard which means it supports 14 plus coding agents including Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor and Gemini.

Git URL Options

You can use either -g or --git with HTTPS or SSH URLs:

# HTTPS URL
skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill

# SSH URL
skilz install --git git@github.com:SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill.git

Claude Code

Install to user home (available in all projects):

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill

Install to current project only:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --project

OpenCode

Install for OpenCode:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --agent opencode

Project-level install:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --project --agent opencode

Gemini

Project-level install for Gemini:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --agent gemini

OpenAI Codex

Install for OpenAI Codex:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --agent codex

Project-level install:

skilz install -g https://github.com/SpillwaveSolutions/mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill --project --agent codex

Install from Skillzwave Marketplace

# Claude to user home dir ~/.claude/skills
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli

# Claude skill in project folder ./claude/skills
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli --project

# OpenCode install to user home dir ~/.config/opencode/skills
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli --agent opencode

# OpenCode project level
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli --agent opencode --project

# OpenAI Codex install to user home dir ~/.codex/skills
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli

# OpenAI Codex project level ./.codex/skills
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli --agent opencode --project

# Gemini CLI (project level) -- only works with project level
skilz install SpillwaveSolutions_mastering-gemini-cli-agentic-skill/mastering-gemini-cli --agent gemini

See this site skill Listing to see how to install this exact skill to 14+ different coding agents.

Other Supported Agents

Skilz supports 14+ coding agents including Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI, Windsurf, Qwen Code, Aidr, and more.

For the full list of supported platforms, visit SkillzWave.ai/platforms or see the skilz-cli GitHub repository

Largest Agentic Marketplace for AI Agent Skills and SpillWave: Leaders in AI Agent Development.

Skill Contents

• SKILL.md - Main skill documentation
• references/ - Detailed reference documentation
  • flags.md - Complete flag reference
  • permission-model.md - Consent model and approval modes
  • context-hierarchy.md - GEMINI.md and settings.json
  • tools.md - ReadFile, Edit, WriteFile, RunShell
  • mcp-integration.md - External service integration
• assets/ - Templates and starter files
  • GEMINI-template.md - Starter context file
  • settings-template.json - Minimal config with smartEdit
  • headless-wrapper.sh - Shell script template
• scripts/ - Utility scripts
  • validate-setup.sh - Verify configuration before deployment

License

MIT

Author

Richard Hightower - SpillWave Solutions