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CLI Commands

Gemini CLI supports several built-in commands to help you manage your session, customize the interface, and control its behavior. These commands are prefixed with a forward slash (/), an at symbol (@), or an exclamation mark (!).

Slash commands (/)

Section titled “Slash commands (/)”

Slash commands provide meta-level control over the CLI itself.

Built-in Commands

Section titled “Built-in Commands”

  • /bug

    • Description: File an issue about Gemini CLI. By default, the issue is filed within the GitHub repository for Gemini CLI. The string you enter after /bug will become the headline for the bug being filed. The default /bug behavior can be modified using the advanced.bugCommand setting in your .gemini/settings.json files.

  • /chat

    • Description: Save and resume conversation history for branching conversation state interactively, or resuming a previous state from a later session.
    • Sub-commands:
      • save
        • Description: Saves the current conversation history. You must add a <tag> for identifying the conversation state.
        • Usage: /chat save <tag>
        • Details on Checkpoint Location: The default locations for saved chat checkpoints are:
          • Linux/macOS: ~/.gemini/tmp/<project_hash>/
          • Windows: C:\Users\<YourUsername>\.gemini\tmp\<project_hash>\
          • When you run /chat list, the CLI only scans these specific directories to find available checkpoints.
          • Note: These checkpoints are for manually saving and resuming conversation states. For automatic checkpoints created before file modifications, see the Checkpointing documentation.
      • resume
        • Description: Resumes a conversation from a previous save.
        • Usage: /chat resume <tag>
      • list
        • Description: Lists available tags for chat state resumption.
      • delete
        • Description: Deletes a saved conversation checkpoint.
        • Usage: /chat delete <tag>
      • share
        • Description Writes the current conversation to a provided Markdown or JSON file.
        • Usage /chat share file.md or /chat share file.json. If no filename is provided, then the CLI will generate one.

  • /clear

    • Description: Clear the terminal screen, including the visible session history and scrollback within the CLI. The underlying session data (for history recall) might be preserved depending on the exact implementation, but the visual display is cleared.
    • Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+L at any time to perform a clear action.

  • /compress

    • Description: Replace the entire chat context with a summary. This saves on tokens used for future tasks while retaining a high level summary of what has happened.

  • /copy

    • Description: Copies the last output produced by Gemini CLI to your clipboard, for easy sharing or reuse.
    • Note: This command requires platform-specific clipboard tools to be installed.
      • On Linux, it requires xclip or xsel. You can typically install them using your system’s package manager.
      • On macOS, it requires pbcopy, and on Windows, it requires clip. These tools are typically pre-installed on their respective systems.

  • /directory (or /dir)

    • Description: Manage workspace directories for multi-directory support.
    • Sub-commands:
      • add:
        • Description: Add a directory to the workspace. The path can be absolute or relative to the current working directory. Moreover, the reference from home directory is supported as well.
        • Usage: /directory add <path1>,<path2>
        • Note: Disabled in restrictive sandbox profiles. If you’re using that, use --include-directories when starting the session instead.
      • show:
        • Description: Display all directories added by /directory add and --include-directories.
        • Usage: /directory show

  • /editor

    • Description: Open a dialog for selecting supported editors.

  • /extensions

  • /help (or /?)

    • Description: Display help information about Gemini CLI, including available commands and their usage.

  • /mcp

    • Description: List configured Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, their connection status, server details, and available tools.
    • Sub-commands:
      • desc or descriptions:
        • Description: Show detailed descriptions for MCP servers and tools.
      • nodesc or nodescriptions:
        • Description: Hide tool descriptions, showing only the tool names.
      • schema:
        • Description: Show the full JSON schema for the tool’s configured parameters.
    • Keyboard Shortcut: Press Ctrl+T at any time to toggle between showing and hiding tool descriptions.

  • /memory

    • Description: Manage the AI’s instructional context (hierarchical memory loaded from GEMINI.md files).
    • Sub-commands:
      • add:
        • Description: Adds the following text to the AI’s memory. Usage: /memory add <text to remember>
      • show:
        • Description: Display the full, concatenated content of the current hierarchical memory that has been loaded from all GEMINI.md files. This lets you inspect the instructional context being provided to the Gemini model.
      • refresh:
        • Description: Reload the hierarchical instructional memory from all GEMINI.md files found in the configured locations (global, project/ancestors, and sub-directories). This command updates the model with the latest GEMINI.md content.
      • list:
        • Description: Lists the paths of the GEMINI.md files in use for hierarchical memory.
      • Note: For more details on how GEMINI.md files contribute to hierarchical memory, see the CLI Configuration documentation.

  • /restore

    • Description: Restores the project files to the state they were in just before a tool was executed. This is particularly useful for undoing file edits made by a tool. If run without a tool call ID, it will list available checkpoints to restore from.
    • Usage: /restore [tool_call_id]
    • Note: Only available if the CLI is invoked with the --checkpointing option or configured via settings. See Checkpointing documentation for more details.

  • /settings

    • Description: Open the settings editor to view and modify Gemini CLI settings.
    • Details: This command provides a user-friendly interface for changing settings that control the behavior and appearance of Gemini CLI. It is equivalent to manually editing the .gemini/settings.json file, but with validation and guidance to prevent errors.
    • Usage: Simply run /settings and the editor will open. You can then browse or search for specific settings, view their current values, and modify them as desired. Changes to some settings are applied immediately, while others require a restart.

  • /stats

    • Description: Display detailed statistics for the current Gemini CLI session, including token usage, cached token savings (when available), and session duration. Note: Cached token information is only displayed when cached tokens are being used, which occurs with API key authentication but not with OAuth authentication at this time.

  • /theme

    • Description: Open a dialog that lets you change the visual theme of Gemini CLI.

  • /auth

    • Description: Open a dialog that lets you change the authentication method.

  • /about

    • Description: Show version info. Please share this information when filing issues.

  • /tools

    • Description: Display a list of tools that are currently available within Gemini CLI.
    • Usage: /tools [desc]
    • Sub-commands:
      • desc or descriptions:
        • Description: Show detailed descriptions of each tool, including each tool’s name with its full description as provided to the model.
      • nodesc or nodescriptions:
        • Description: Hide tool descriptions, showing only the tool names.

  • /privacy

    • Description: Display the Privacy Notice and allow users to select whether they consent to the collection of their data for service improvement purposes.

  • /quit (or /exit)

    • Description: Exit Gemini CLI.

  • /vim

    • Description: Toggle vim mode on or off. When vim mode is enabled, the input area supports vim-style navigation and editing commands in both NORMAL and INSERT modes.
    • Features:
      • NORMAL mode: Navigate with h, j, k, l; jump by words with w, b, e; go to line start/end with 0, $, ^; go to specific lines with G (or gg for first line)
      • INSERT mode: Standard text input with escape to return to NORMAL mode
      • Editing commands: Delete with x, change with c, insert with i, a, o, O; complex operations like dd, cc, dw, cw
      • Count support: Prefix commands with numbers (e.g., 3h, 5w, 10G)
      • Repeat last command: Use . to repeat the last editing operation
      • Persistent setting: Vim mode preference is saved to ~/.gemini/settings.json and restored between sessions
    • Status indicator: When enabled, shows [NORMAL] or [INSERT] in the footer

  • /init

    • Description: To help users easily create a GEMINI.md file, this command analyzes the current directory and generates a tailored context file, making it simpler for them to provide project-specific instructions to the Gemini agent.

Custom Commands

Section titled “Custom Commands”

Custom commands allow you to create personalized shortcuts for your most-used prompts. For detailed instructions on how to create, manage, and use them, please see the dedicated Custom Commands documentation.

Input Prompt Shortcuts

Section titled “Input Prompt Shortcuts”

These shortcuts apply directly to the input prompt for text manipulation.

  • Undo:

    • Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+z to undo the last action in the input prompt.

  • Redo:

    • Keyboard shortcut: Press Ctrl+Shift+Z to redo the last undone action in the input prompt.

At commands (@)

Section titled “At commands (@)”

At commands are used to include the content of files or directories as part of your prompt to Gemini. These commands include git-aware filtering.

  • @<path_to_file_or_directory>

    • Description: Inject the content of the specified file or files into your current prompt. This is useful for asking questions about specific code, text, or collections of files.
    • Examples:
      • @path/to/your/file.txt Explain this text.
      • @src/my_project/ Summarize the code in this directory.
      • What is this file about? @README.md
    • Details:
      • If a path to a single file is provided, the content of that file is read.
      • If a path to a directory is provided, the command attempts to read the content of files within that directory and any subdirectories.
      • Spaces in paths should be escaped with a backslash (e.g., @My\ Documents/file.txt).
      • The command uses the read_many_files tool internally. The content is fetched and then inserted into your query before being sent to the Gemini model.
      • Git-aware filtering: By default, git-ignored files (like node_modules/, dist/, .env, .git/) are excluded. This behavior can be changed via the context.fileFiltering settings.
      • File types: The command is intended for text-based files. While it might attempt to read any file, binary files or very large files might be skipped or truncated by the underlying read_many_files tool to ensure performance and relevance. The tool indicates if files were skipped.
    • Output: The CLI will show a tool call message indicating that read_many_files was used, along with a message detailing the status and the path(s) that were processed.

  • @ (Lone at symbol)

    • Description: If you type a lone @ symbol without a path, the query is passed as-is to the Gemini model. This might be useful if you are specifically talking about the @ symbol in your prompt.

Error handling for @ commands

Section titled “Error handling for @ commands”
  • If the path specified after @ is not found or is invalid, an error message will be displayed, and the query might not be sent to the Gemini model, or it will be sent without the file content.
  • If the read_many_files tool encounters an error (e.g., permission issues), this will also be reported.

Shell mode & passthrough commands (!)

Section titled “Shell mode & passthrough commands (!)”

The ! prefix lets you interact with your system’s shell directly from within Gemini CLI.

  • !<shell_command>

    • Description: Execute the given <shell_command> using bash on Linux/macOS or cmd.exe on Windows. Any output or errors from the command are displayed in the terminal.
    • Examples:
      • !ls -la (executes ls -la and returns to Gemini CLI)
      • !git status (executes git status and returns to Gemini CLI)

  • ! (Toggle shell mode)

    • Description: Typing ! on its own toggles shell mode.
      • Entering shell mode:
        • When active, shell mode uses a different coloring and a “Shell Mode Indicator”.
        • While in shell mode, text you type is interpreted directly as a shell command.
      • Exiting shell mode:
        • When exited, the UI reverts to its standard appearance and normal Gemini CLI behavior resumes.

  • Caution for all ! usage: Commands you execute in shell mode have the same permissions and impact as if you ran them directly in your terminal.

  • Environment Variable: When a command is executed via ! or in shell mode, the GEMINI_CLI=1 environment variable is set in the subprocess’s environment. This allows scripts or tools to detect if they are being run from within the Gemini CLI.