Gemini CLI cheat sheet

Every command, flag and slash command for gemini — Google's open-source terminal agent — with a generous free tier on a personal Google account. 19+ commands, verified July 2026.

Install

npx @google/gemini-cli              # run without installing (Node 20+)
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli   # global install (command: gemini)
brew install gemini-cli             # Homebrew (macOS / Linux)

Start & run

gemini                              # interactive session in the current dir
gemini -p "Explain this codebase"   # headless: print and exit
gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash          # pick the model
gemini -i "Refactor auth.js"        # interactive, seeded with a prompt
gemini -a -p "Summarize the project"  # include ALL files as context
gemini --yolo                       # auto-approve every tool call

Key flags

Flag	What it does
`-m, --model`	Model for the session (`gemini-2.5-pro` / `-flash`)
`-p, --prompt`	Headless: run, print, exit
`-i, --prompt-interactive`	Start interactive with an initial prompt
`-a, --all-files`	Recursively include all files in cwd as context
`--include-directories`	Add workspace dirs (max 5)
`-s, --sandbox`	Run tool execution inside a sandbox
`--yolo`	Auto-approve all tool calls (= `--approval-mode yolo`)
`--approval-mode`	`default` · `auto_edit` · `yolo`
`--output-format`	`text` (default) or `json`

Slash · @file · !shell

Command	What it does
`/help` · `/?`	Show help and available commands
`/chat save\|resume\|list`	Save / branch / restore conversation checkpoints
`/compress`	Replace chat history with a summary to save tokens
`/memory add\|show\|refresh`	Manage context loaded from `GEMINI.md`
`/tools` · `/mcp`	List built-in tools · MCP servers and their tools
`/stats`	Token usage, cache savings, session duration
`/restore`	Revert files to a pre-tool state (needs `--checkpointing`)
`/init`	Generate a tailored `GEMINI.md`
`@src/main.js explain this`	Inject a file / directory into the prompt
`!npm test`	Run one shell command (`!` alone toggles shell mode)

Config

.gemini/settings.json   ·   ~/.gemini/settings.json     # project / user
GEMINI.md                        # project context (/init to scaffold)

export GEMINI_API_KEY="…"        # from Google AI Studio  (GEMINI_MODEL sets default)
# …or "Login with Google": free tier = 60 requests/min, 1,000/day

gemini mcp add <name> <command> [args…]   # register an MCP server

Common one-liners

gemini -p "Explain the architecture of this codebase"
gemini -a -p "Write a README summarizing this project"    # whole dir as context
gemini --yolo -p "Run the test suite and fix any failing tests"
gemini -p "List all TODO comments as JSON" --output-format json