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Gemini CLI is Google’s powerful coding assistant with advanced reasoning capabilities.

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To install Gemini CLI

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

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Configuring Gemini CLI to work with Bifrost

Gemini CLI supports multiple authentication methods. Choose the one that matches your account type.

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Google account (OAuth)

Log in with your Google account for free-tier access (60 requests/min, 1,000 requests/day).
  1. Set the Bifrost base URL 
    export GOOGLE_GEMINI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/genai
  2. Run Gemini CLI and sign in 
    gemini
    Select Login with Google and authenticate via your browser. All traffic automatically routes through Bifrost.

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API key based usage

For users with a Gemini API key (obtain one from Google AI Studio):
  1. Configure environment variables 
    export GEMINI_API_KEY=your-api-key  # Gemini API key or Bifrost virtual key
export GOOGLE_GEMINI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/genai
  2. Run Gemini CLI 
    gemini
    Select Use Gemini API Key in the CLI prompt for authentication.
Gemini CLI authentication

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Google Cloud / Vertex AI

For enterprise users with Vertex AI access: 
export GOOGLE_API_KEY=your-api-key  # Google API key or Bifrost virtual key
export GOOGLE_GENAI_USE_VERTEXAI=true
export GOOGLE_GEMINI_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080/genai
gemini
For paid Code Assist License users, set your Google Cloud project: export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="your-project-id"
Now all Gemini CLI traffic flows through Bifrost, giving you access to any provider/model configured in your Bifrost setup, plus observability and governance.

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Model Configuration

Use the -m flag to start Gemini CLI with a specific model: 
gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash
gemini -m gemini-2.5-pro

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Using Non-Google Models with Gemini CLI

Bifrost automatically translates GenAI API requests to other providers, so you can use Gemini CLI with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and more. Use the provider/model-name format to specify any Bifrost-configured model. 
# Start with an OpenAI model
gemini -m openai/gpt-5

# Start with an Anthropic model
gemini -m anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929

# Start with a Groq model
gemini -m groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile

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Supported Providers

Bifrost supports the following providers with the provider/model-name format: openai, azure, gemini, vertex, bedrock, mistral, groq, cerebras, cohere, perplexity, xai, ollama, openrouter, huggingface, nebius, parasail, replicate, vllm, sgl
Non-Google models must support tool use for Gemini CLI to work properly. Gemini CLI relies on tool calling for file operations, terminal commands, and code editing. Models without tool use support will fail on most operations.