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gemini-api-cli

Call the Gemini API from the shell with gemini-api. Use for media generation (images, TTS, music, video), file and YouTube analysis, audio/video transcription, Deep Research, and sandboxed agents.

skills/gemini-api-cli/SKILL.md

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The `gemini-api` CLI exposes every Gemini API resource as a shell subcommand. Compared to `curl`: media and transcription commands decode output to disk and print only the file path, `-i` attaches local files or `files/<id>` URIs, `--jq` extracts fields in-process (raw strings by default, no external `jq`), `--dry-run` previews redacted HTTP requests offline, and list endpoints auto-paginate with `--all` (cap pages with `--max-pages N`; `--page-size` sets server page size).

## CLI vs SDK

**CLI for shell work, SDK for application code.** Use `gemini-api` from terminals, scripts, and CI jobs to generate media files, analyze local PDFs or recordings, run Deep Research, and manage agent sandboxes (`gemini-api` is a stateless Gemini API client, distinct from the interactive `@google/gemini-cli` coding agent). Use the Google GenAI SDKs (`gemini-api-dev`, `gemini-live-api-dev`) when calls live inside application source or need bidirectional Live API WebSockets.

## Install and auth

```sh
# macOS / Linux (set GEMINI_VERSION=<tag> to pin a release)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/google-gemini/gemini-api-cli/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
```

Credentials resolve in order (first match wins): `--api-key` / `--access-token` flags, `GEMINI_API_KEY` / `GEMINI_ACCESS_TOKEN` env vars, the OS keychain, then `~/.config/gemini-api/config.yaml`.