Gemini Framework

Gemini CLI — Reference Knowledge

REFERENCE ONLY. Do NOT create GEMINI.md, .gemini/, playbooks, or rules files in the user's project unless the user explicitly asks to add Gemini CLI support. NXTG-Forge delivers all agent functionality through the Claude Code plugin system; this skill only explains the other tool so you can advise on interop.

How Gemini CLI Discovers Context

Gemini CLI builds its instructional context ("memory") by concatenating (not overriding) every GEMINI.md it finds, from broadest to most specific:

1. ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md — global user instructions
2. Current directory and each parent up to the .git root — project instructions
3. Subdirectories under CWD — module-specific instructions

It respects .gitignore and .geminiignore when scanning. The context filename is configurable via context.fileName (see below), so it is not always literally GEMINI.md.

Modular Imports

GEMINI.md supports @path/to/file.md imports (relative or absolute), which pull in:

• @.gemini/rules/coding-standards.md — always-on rules
• @.gemini/playbooks/feature-planning.md — on-demand skill-equivalents

Memory Commands

• /memory show — inspect the fully-assembled loaded context
• /memory refresh — rescan after editing any GEMINI.md
• /memory add <text> — append to ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md

.gemini/settings.json

Project-level config (global variant: ~/.gemini/settings.json). Modern Gemini CLI groups keys under nested categories — general, ui, model, context, tools, mcpServers:

{
  "general": { "vimMode": true, "defaultApprovalMode": "default" },
  "ui": { "theme": "Default", "hideBanner": true },
  "context": { "fileName": ["GEMINI.md"] },
  "tools": { "useRipgrep": true }
}

• context.fileName accepts a single string OR an array of strings.
• general.defaultApprovalMode values: "default" (prompt), "auto_edit" (auto-approve edits), "plan" (read-only). This is the tool-approval gate — it lives under general, not tools (see Gotchas).