Harnesses

Gemini CLI

Google's CLI. Headless -p mode, settings.json at user, project and system scope with a Windows path, audio through read_file, commands in TOML.

getHarness: getHarness("gemini")
binary: gemini
invoke modes: 2 of 6 · official
model listing: no
mcp config: json · standard
agents file: ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md

Gemini CLI is the one harness with a %PROGRAMDATA% path, for the managed settings on Windows, and one of two with a verified native audio route: its read_file tool accepts audio files. Video is not documented and is recorded as false with the request that asked for it linked from the README.

Sessions are JSON under ~/.gemini/history/<project-id>/, where the id is a slug from projects.json rather than the path, so the note is there. Custom commands are TOML files. The global instructions file is ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md, and syncAgentsFiles links it like any other.

Capabilities and invocation

mcp: yesvision: yesaudio: yesvideo: notools: yesstreaming: yes

Binary gemini, evidence official. Non-interactive (headless) mode. Model selection appends --model {model}.

advisor

{}

rejected

advisor · json

{ structured: true }

rejected

read-only

{ readOnly: true }

rejected

read-only · json

{ readOnly: true, structured: true }

rejected

agent

{ tools: true }

-p {prompt}

agent · json

{ tools: true, structured: true }

-p {prompt} --output-format json

Paths

Templates as the registry stores them. ~, ${HOME} and %VAR% expand in resolve(); entries tagged with a platform are dropped on the others. Open in the explorer to see them expanded for a home directory of your choice.

config

~/.gemini/settings.jsonuser · official · all
.gemini/settings.jsonproject · official · all
/etc/gemini-cli/settings.jsonsystem · official · linux
/Library/Application Support/GeminiCli/settings.jsonsystem · official · darwin
%PROGRAMDATA%/gemini-cli/settings.jsonsystem · official · win32

sessions

~/.gemini/history/<project-id>/data · official · allConversation history per project (project-id is a slug from projects.json).
~/.gemini/tmp/<project-id>/chats/data · official · allActive chat session data.

instructions

GEMINI.mdproject · official · all
~/.gemini/GEMINI.mduser · official · allGlobal instruction/memory file.

skills

.gemini/skills/project · official · all
.agents/skills/project · official · all
~/.gemini/skills/user · official · all
~/.agents/skills/user · official · all

commands

.gemini/commands/project · official · allCustom commands in TOML format.
~/.gemini/commands/user · official · allGlobal custom commands in TOML format.

empty

hooks No known location. That is not the same as the feature being missing.

MCP servers

~/.gemini/settings.jsonuser · json · standard · mcpServers

.gemini/settings.jsonproject · json · standard · mcpServers

Detection

envVars

GEMINI_CLI

projectMarkers

.geminiGEMINI.md

Persistence

JSON - Settings files. (official)
JSON - Session and history records. (official)

syncAgentsFiles links ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md to the master bundle.

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Codex CLI

OpenAI's CLI. codex exec with a native read-only sandbox, TOML config with comments preserved on edit, sessions as JSONL plus a SQLite state database.

Antigravity CLI

Google's second CLI, sharing ~/.gemini with Gemini CLI. Native audio and video attachments, conversations as Protocol Buffers, hooks in JSON.