Gemini Family Cheatsheet
This is a lookup document, not a tutorial. To learn a tool, start from the learning map; to understand a concept, see the glossary; to copy a recipe, see the cookbook.
This page is the single authoritative copy of the Gemini family decision tables, config keys, model status and subscription tiers. Other pages link here instead of duplicating them.
Contents
- Which tool
- Model status
- Subscription tiers
- Glossary index
- Configuration
- High-quality sources
- Related pages
Which tool
Since 2026-06-18: individual / Google AI Pro / Ultra accounts can no longer reach Gemini CLI or the Code Assist IDE extensions via Login with Google. Read those two rows as Standard / Enterprise or a paid API key; the individual entry point is Antigravity. Official deprecation.
Pick by task
| What I want to do | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ask about code in the terminal, run scripts, pipe output | Gemini CLI (enterprise / API key) or Antigravity CLI (individual) | CLI has zero prerequisites, -p headless mode and --output-format json; individual accounts use Antigravity daily |
| Let an agent plan and change a batch of files on its own | Antigravity | Desktop + CLI + SDK share one harness, with asynchronous subagents and reviewable artifacts |
| Hand a task to the cloud and come back to a PR | Jules | Clones the repo into a cloud VM, produces a plan for your approval, then opens a PR |
| Complete code, edit one file, do a local refactor in the IDE | Code Assist | VS Code / JetBrains / Android Studio extension with local codebase awareness |
| See a clickable prototype right inside the conversation | Canvas | In-conversation workspace, no local project setup |
| A video for a landing page, launch film or product demo | Google Flow | Veo 3.1 / Nano Banana / Gemini Omni; Claude Design counterpart, no DOM |
| Tune model parameters, test a system prompt, call the API | AI Studio | Direct control over model and parameters; the entry point for API integration |
| Decide which tier to buy and how to cap spend | Plans and quota | Quota differences across the 4 tiers plus the Google Cloud credit |
Antigravity vs Code Assist vs Jules
These three are the easiest to confuse. Separate them by where it runs, who starts it, how much it changes:
| Dimension | Antigravity | Code Assist | Jules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Local (desktop / CLI / IDE / SDK) | Inside your local IDE | Cloud VM |
| Who starts it | You, in a live conversation | You, from the editor | You create a task in web or CLI, then leave |
| Deliverable | Changes in your workspace plus artifacts | Completions and edits in the editor | A pull request |
| Concurrency | Asynchronous subagents | Single session | Multiple parallel tasks (cap varies by subscription tier) |
| Editions | One product | Standard / Enterprise (individual free tier stopped 2026-06-18) | One product; quota varies by subscription tier |
| Typical use | Cross-module refactor you want to watch | Single-file completion, local multi-file refactor | Dependency upgrades, tech-debt cleanup, well-bounded standalone tasks |
Pick by input size
| Input size | Suggestion |
|---|---|
| One file, one error message | Gemini CLI pipe: ... 2>&1 | gemini -p "analyse this error" |
| One module, dozens of files | An Antigravity workspace — let it read for itself |
| Whole-repository audit | AI Studio; the official plan comparison lists 1,000,000-token extended context for Pro and above |
Model status
The official model list (page states Last updated 2026-08-14) is the source of truth. This table goes stale fast — re-check the official page before citing a model name.
Current stable models (excerpt)
| Model | Positioning (per official description) |
|---|---|
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | Described as the newest and most capable Flash model, aimed at complex coding, agentic workflows and reliable multi-step execution |
Gemini 3.6 Flash (gemini-3.6-flash) | Previous stable Flash |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | Stable; the docs state it powers all local Antigravity agents |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite / 3.1 Flash-Lite | Cost-sensitive workloads |
gemini-2.5-pro / gemini-2.5-flash / gemini-2.5-flash-lite | The 2.5 generation is still listed |
antigravity-preview-05-2026 | Described as a general-purpose hosted agent that plans autonomously, executes code, manages files and browses the web in an isolated Linux sandbox |
Retired (do not put these in docs or examples)
gemini-3-pro-preview, gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview, gemini-2.0-flash and gemini-2.0-flash-lite are all marked Shut down in the official Previous models table.
What the version suffixes mean
| Suffix | Meaning |
|---|---|
| stable | Stable, no breaking changes |
| preview | Preview; deprecation is announced at least two weeks ahead |
latest (e.g. gemini-flash-latest) | Points at the newest version and is hot-swapped; two weeks' email notice before breaking changes |
| experimental | Experimental, can disappear at any time |
⚠️ Context windows: the official model list does not give a per-model context window. The only citable figure today comes from the plan comparison — 1,000,000-token extended context for Pro and above.
Subscription tiers
From the official Google AI plans comparison.
| Dimension | AI Plus | AI Pro | AI Ultra 5x | AI Ultra 20x |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 400 GB | 5 TB | 20 TB | 30 TB |
| Model access multiplier (official wording) | 2x | 4x | 5x | 20x |
| Extended context window | not listed | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Monthly Google Cloud credit (via Google Developer Program) | not listed | US$10 | US$40 | US$100 |
| Antigravity agent request quota | limited | extended | higher | highest |
| Jules tasks / concurrent tasks | increases per tier (official wording is qualitative only) | |||
| Flow credits | 200 / month | 1,000 / month | 10,000 / month | 25,000 / month |
| Deep Think, Project Genie | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Key points:
- The official table describes Antigravity and Jules quota qualitatively, with no numbers at all. Do not cite figures like "N tasks per day".
- Flow credits are numeric: 50/day with no subscription (trial, no daily rollover); paid tiers follow the row above and do not roll over unused monthly credits. Daily / monthly rules and per-generation cost live on Flow and are not copied here.
- Coding-related Pro entitlements from 14534406: higher AI Studio / Antigravity / Jules quota, Android Studio, the US$10 Cloud credit from the Developer Program, plus Flow / Spark / Notebook / Gemini app / Chrome auto browse. The list is on the subscription page; do not copy it here.
- Once you have the Cloud credit, set a budget first: GCP console → Billing → Budgets & alerts → create a budget matching the credit and turn on alerts.
Glossary index
One line per concept. The full definition exists only once, in the glossary — this is just a jump table.
| Concept | One line | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Agent-first | Treats AI as an actor that plans and executes, not a completion engine | detail |
| Surface | Antigravity's multiple entry points share one agent harness | detail |
| Rules | Long-lived behavioural constraints, at global and workspace level | detail |
| Skill | A directory containing SKILL.md, loaded on demand | detail |
| Workflow | A multi-step procedure invoked explicitly as /name | detail |
| Subagent | A subordinate agent the main agent dispatches to work in parallel | detail |
| Artifact | A reviewable intermediate product an agent emits | detail |
| Checkpoint | Gemini CLI snapshots before each edit; /restore rolls back | detail |
| Session | The full record of one conversation; can be listed and resumed | detail |
| Headless mode | One-shot execution via -p, suitable for pipelines | detail |
| Trusted folder | In an untrusted directory, project settings and custom commands do not apply | detail |
| MCP | An open protocol that lets agents reach external tools | detail |
| Extension | Gemini CLI's installation unit, commonly used to install MCP servers | detail |
| AGENTS.md | The instruction file Jules reads automatically from the repo root | detail |
| Google Flow | AI creative studio; film, not code | detail |
Configuration
Gemini CLI settings layers
Lowest to highest precedence:
| Layer | Location |
|---|---|
| System defaults | GEMINI_CLI_SYSTEM_DEFAULTS_PATH; defaults to Linux /etc/gemini-cli/system-defaults.json, Windows C:\ProgramData\gemini-cli\system-defaults.json, macOS /Library/Application Support/GeminiCli/system-defaults.json |
| User | ~/.gemini/settings.json |
| Project | .gemini/settings.json |
| System overrides (highest) | GEMINI_CLI_SYSTEM_SETTINGS_PATH; defaults to Linux /etc/gemini-cli/settings.json, Windows C:\ProgramData\gemini-cli\settings.json, macOS /Library/Application Support/GeminiCli/settings.json |
Config files can reference environment variables as $VAR_NAME or ${VAR_NAME}. The single source of truth for available keys is settings.schema.json.
Common settings keys
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
general.checkpointing.enabled | Enables checkpoints so /restore can roll back (off by default) |
general.sessionRetention.enabled | Enables automatic session cleanup (off by default) |
general.sessionRetention.maxAge | Maximum session age, e.g. "30d" |
general.sessionRetention.maxCount | Maximum number of sessions kept |
general.sessionRetention.minRetention | Minimum retention period, default "1d" |
model.maxSessionTurns | Maximum turns in one session, default -1 (unlimited) |
security.folderTrust.enabled | Enables folder trust; the trust list lives in ~/.gemini/trustedFolders.json |
⚠️ Earlier revisions of these docs listed
security.allowedCommands,security.deniedCommands,security.sandboxMode,requireBranch,allowedBranchPatternandcodeAssist.agentMode. None of these exist in the official schema or docs and all have been removed. For command allow-listing see the policy engine.
Environment variables and prompt files
| Item | Effect |
|---|---|
GEMINI_SYSTEM_MD=true (or 1) | Enables a custom system prompt read from .gemini/system.md; an absolute path also works. While active the UI shows a |⌐■_■| indicator |
.gemini/.env | Persisted environment variables |
GEMINI_CLI=1 | Lets a shell-mode command detect that it is running inside the CLI sandbox |
Put non-negotiable operating rules (safety, tool-use protocol, approval gates) in system.md; put role, goals, methodology and project context in GEMINI.md.
Antigravity rules and skills paths
| Item | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Global rules | ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md | Applies across all workspaces |
| Workspace rules | .agents/rules directory | Travels with the repo |
| Rule length cap | 12,000 characters each | Official limit |
| Rule activation modes | Manual / Always On / Model Decision / Glob | Glob triggers on file patterns |
| Skills | .agents/skills/<folder>/SKILL.md or ~/.gemini/config/skills/<folder>/SKILL.md | A skill is a directory, not a single md file; .agent/skills is kept only for backward compatibility |
| Skill frontmatter | description required, name optional | |
| Workflow invocation | /<workflow-name> | |
| Cross-reference inside rules | @filename |
Jules
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Install | npm install -g @google/jules (binary is jules) |
| Repo instruction file | AGENTS.md in the repo root, read automatically |
| Auth | Requires a browser to complete Google account authorisation |
Common commands:
jules # open the interactive TUI board (with side-by-side diff)
jules help
jules version
jules remote --help
jules remote list --repo # list repositories
jules remote list --session # list sessions
jules remote new --repo <owner/repo> --session "<task description>"
jules remote new --parallel <number> # start several tasks in parallel
jules remote pull --session <id> # pull results locally
jules completion bash # generate shell completion
jules --theme dark # global option: dark / light⚠️ The npm package is
@google/jules.@google/jules-tools,jules status,jules task list,jules pr apply,jules remote new "<desc>"(missing--repo/--session) and--issue=appeared in earlier revisions with no official source and have been removed.
High-quality sources
Last systematic verification: 2026-08-18. The tiering below is this document's maintainer ranking by "official?" and "kept in sync with releases?", and is advisory only.
Tier S: official sources of truth
| Source | Use for |
|---|---|
| Gemini CLI docs | All Gemini CLI commands, config, headless mode, sessions, checkpoints |
| settings.schema.json | The source of truth for config keys; updated ahead of the docs |
| Model and retirement list | Current models, retired models, version suffix semantics |
| Antigravity docs | Surfaces, rules, skills, subagents |
| Antigravity rules/workflows | Rule file locations, character cap, activation modes |
| Antigravity skills | Skill directory structure and frontmatter |
| Jules CLI reference | Every Jules CLI command and option |
| Jules docs | Cloud workflow, AGENTS.md, environment setup scripts |
| Code Assist overview | Edition differences, supported IDEs, agent mode, enterprise features |
| Consumer-account deprecation | What stopped on 2026-06-18 for individual / Pro / Ultra Login with Google |
| Gemini CLI → Antigravity CLI transition | Consumer migration timeline; enterprise access unchanged |
| Google AI plans | Quota comparison across the four tiers |
| Google AI Pro benefits | Coding-relevant Pro entitlements (Flow / Spark / Notebook / Jules / Antigravity) |
| Flow credits | Flow daily / monthly credits and per-generation cost |
Tier A: official but slower-moving or marketing-oriented
| Source | Use for |
|---|---|
| gemini-cli repository | Issues often document behaviour the docs omit |
| Gemini CLI release channels | nightly / preview / stable differences |
| Gemini CLI extensions | Available extensions |
| Canvas overview | The only official Canvas page; product-level |
| Google Flow landing page | Models, modes, Tools, Sessions, tier credits |
| Flow help centre | Create videos, Scenebuilder, regional availability |
| Gemini API billing | Billing model for the API |
| Long context docs | Guidance for long-context use |
Tier B: cross-check required
Community tutorials, third-party blogs, videos. Command names in this family change often, so community content goes stale quickly — use it for ideas, not for copying commands.
Watch the domain:
geminicli.comis the official docs site (linked fromgithub.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli). Similar-looking domains are not.
Related pages
- Learning map — where to start and in what order
- Cookbook — recipes by scenario
- Glossary — concepts and how they relate
- Gemini CLI — the main tutorial