Gemini CLI stopped working: what to use now

If gemini stopped working for you this summer, nothing is wrong with your install. On 2026-06-18 Google stopped serving Gemini CLI to personal Google accounts: the free tier, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra. Reinstalling or signing in with another personal account won't bring it back. You have three ways forward: move to Antigravity CLI (agy), which Google offers as the replacement; keep Gemini CLI running on a paid API key; or switch to another coding agent.

What happened to Gemini CLI

Google announced the change on 2026-05-19 in a post on the Google Developers Blog, with a matching GitHub discussion (#28017). From 2026-06-18, Gemini CLI and the Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions stopped serving requests for individual accounts. Google points those users to Antigravity CLI, which it describes as carrying over Gemini CLI's most important features: Agent Skills, Hooks, Subagents, and Extensions (now called plugins).

If you sign in with a personal account now, the browser says authentication succeeded and then the terminal prints this:

This client is no longer supported for Gemini Code Assist for individuals. To continue using Gemini, please migrate to the Antigravity suite of products.

That's the text reported in gemini-cli issue #28229. Some migration guides also report an HTTP 410 Gone from the CLI. We haven't seen Google document a status code, so go by the message: if you see it, your sign-in path has been retired. It isn't a quota problem.

Who is affected, and who isn't

The table follows Google's announcement. Note that Google says paid API keys. If you rely on a free AI Studio key, check the announcement yourself before you count on it.

Option 1: move to Antigravity CLI (agy)

For most people who used Gemini CLI with a Google account, this is Google's intended path. Install it from the official install page:

# macOS and Linux (installs ~/.local/bin/agy)
curl -fsSL https://antigravity.google/cli/install.sh | bash

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://antigravity.google/cli/install.ps1 | iex

Run agy and choose Google sign-in. On a desktop it opens your browser. Over SSH it prints an authorization URL instead: you open that on any device and paste the code back into the terminal. That's what makes it usable on a headless server.

Bringing your Gemini CLI setup across

Google's migration guide covers what moves automatically and what doesn't:

• First launch: if agy finds an existing Gemini CLI profile, it shows a checklist that offers to convert extensions and global configuration, move session tokens to the OS keyring, and map your settings.
• Extensions: to convert them by hand, run agy plugin import gemini. It turns extensions into Antigravity plugins, converts legacy commands to skills and migrates MCP server definitions. Read its output, because it reports what it processed and what it skipped.
• Context files: GEMINI.md and AGENTS.md keep working, with no renaming needed.
• Skills: move workspace skills from .gemini/skills/ to .agents/skills/. Global skills now live in ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/skills/.
• MCP: servers move from ~/.gemini/settings.json into mcp_config.json (~/.gemini/config/ globally, .agents/ per workspace), and remote servers use serverUrl instead of url/httpUrl.

Google also notes that some custom terminal themes and experimental visual overlays from Gemini CLI may not carry over. For a full walk-through on a VPS, including sign-in without a browser, see running Antigravity CLI on a server.

Option 2: keep Gemini CLI on an API key

If you have scripts built around the gemini command, you can keep it running with a paid key from Google AI Studio. Per the Gemini CLI authentication docs:

export GEMINI_API_KEY="YOUR_GEMINI_API_KEY"
gemini
# then pick "Use Gemini API key"

Vertex AI also works, through Application Default Credentials, a service account, or a Google Cloud API key. The trade-off is billing: you pay per token rather than through a flat subscription. If you have Code Assist Standard or Enterprise through work, nothing changes for you.

An API key also works with agy. Set {"modelProvider": "gemini"} in ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/settings.json and export GEMINI_API_KEY. That suits CI and headless boxes where an interactive sign-in is awkward.

Option 3: switch to another coding agent

The cut-off is also a reasonable moment to ask whether Gemini is still the agent you want. Claude Code runs on a Claude Pro or Max plan. Codex runs on a ChatGPT plan or an OpenAI API key. OpenCode is open source and works with many model providers. Your AGENTS.md moves with you: Codex reads it natively, and recent Claude Code versions read it when no CLAUDE.md is present. We compare the three in Claude Code vs Codex vs OpenCode.

Antigravity's pricing page lists a $0 Individual plan with weekly rate limits, and higher limits on Google AI Pro and Ultra. It gives no numbers for any plan, and we haven't confirmed how much of each quota the CLI can use, so check Google's current plan pages before you decide on cost.

What we did in Maude

Maude runs coding agents on your own server and lets you drive them from your phone. We dropped Gemini CLI for the same reason you're reading this. Maude connects each agent to your own account, and for Gemini CLI that meant a personal Google sign-in, which no longer works. Maude 2.0 supports Antigravity CLI instead, next to Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and Grok Build. The app installs agy on your server at a tested, pinned version, and you sign in from the phone, either with Google (paste the code back) or with a Gemini API key.

One caveat: in headless mode, agy can't stop and ask before a tool runs. Actions that need permission are denied, and the turn reports them. Maude shows each denied action and lets you approve it afterwards. On approval it adds an allow rule to agy's own settings and retries. It works, but it's not the same as Claude Code's ask-first prompt, and you should know that before you pick it.

Google also ships its own Antigravity Remote Control: run /remote-control inside agy, or agy remote-control start for a headless daemon, and drive it from a web dashboard. If Antigravity is the only agent you use, try that first.

Frequently asked questions

What changed

• October 1, 2026 — First published. Facts checked against Google's announcement, the Antigravity CLI install and migration docs, and the Gemini CLI auth docs.