Bridge: Gemini CLI Adapter

This file is a REFERENCE DOCUMENT. Any orchestrating skill reads it via the Read tool and embeds its instructions directly into Task agent prompts. It is not invoked as a standalone skill — it is a reusable set of instructions for Gemini CLI dispatch.

Input schema, agent prompt template, output schema, verdict logic, timeout formula, artifact format, and status semantics are defined in bridge-commons/SKILL.md. This file covers only Gemini-specific connection detection and execution.

Bridge Identity

bridge: gemini
model_family: google/gemini
availability: conditional
connection_preference:
  1: native-dispatch # Executor is Gemini CLI — Gemini subagents (enableAgents)
  2: cli # Any other executor — gemini -p
  3: skip # Neither — return SKIPPED (non-blocking)

native_dispatch:
  detection: ".gemini/settings.json has experimental.enableAgents: true AND running inside Gemini CLI"
  reliability: "MEDIUM — requires settings check + context awareness"
  subagent_types: [] # Gemini spawns subagents internally

Pre-Flight — Connection Detection

MUST read bridge-commons/tool-discovery.md first to understand the discovery protocol.

Step 1.0: Discover Execution Context

Before checking connection paths, discover what dispatch methods are available in the CURRENT execution context. This bridge runs inside multiple executors (Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, others).

Primary detection: Tool availability + settings check (most reliable)

# Check if running INSIDE Gemini CLI (native dispatch)
gemini_native:
  signal: "running inside Gemini CLI AND enableAgents is true"
  check_1: "Am I running inside a Gemini CLI session?"
  check_2: "Is .gemini/settings.json or ~/.gemini/settings.json present with experimental.enableAgents: true?"
  reliability: MEDIUM (requires both context awareness AND settings)

# Environment signals (backup only, less reliable)
gemini_env:
  signal: "GEMINI_SESSION or similar context marker"
  reliability: LOW (may not exist)

Discovery logic:

# Step 1: Check if running inside Gemini CLI
# Gemini CLI doesn't have a standard env var, so check tool access patterns
# If you're reading this from inside a Gemini subagent, you already have native dispatch

# Step 2: Check subagent enablement
native_dispatch_available:
  condition: "enableAgents: true in settings"
  check_project: "cat .gemini/settings.json 2>/dev/null"
  check_user: "cat ~/.gemini/settings.json 2>/dev/null"
  parse: "extract experimental.enableAgents, default false"

If Gemini native dispatch is available:

{
  "executor_type": "gemini-cli",
  "native_dispatch": {
    "available": true,
    "tool_name": null,
    "subagent_types": [],
    "session_continuity": true
  },
  "recommended_dispatch": "native"
}

→ Use native dispatch (Subagent Mode section). This is the preferred path.

If NOT running inside Gemini CLI or enableAgents is false, proceed to Check A.

Check A: CLI Installed?

which gemini

If found → proceed to Check B (Auth Probe).

If not found → return immediately:

{
  "bridge": "gemini",
  "status": "SKIPPED",
  "skip_reason": "gemini CLI not available (which gemini returned empty)",
  "outputs": [],
  "verdict": null
}

Never fail or block — SKIPPED is a valid bridge outcome.

Check B: Auth / Quota Probe

A gemini CLI that is installed but has an expired token or exhausted quota passes Check A and then fails silently at execution time. Catch this at availability check instead:

# Lightweight probe — verifies auth without a full execution
gemini --version 2>/dev/null
# Or: a minimal non-interactive list/ping command if available

If the probe exits non-zero or returns an auth error → return:

{
  "bridge": "gemini",
  "status": "SKIPPED",
  "skip_reason": "gemini CLI auth probe failed: {stderr}",
  "outputs": [],
  "verdict": null
}

If the probe succeeds → use CLI path (Execution section).

Execution

Build the prompt using the Agent Prompt Template from bridge-commons, adapting to task_type. Calculate timeout using bridge-commons formula (no bridge-specific multiplier for Gemini).

TIMEOUT={calculated_timeout}
PROMPT="{constructed_prompt}"
APPROVAL_MODE={resolved from capability_profile}

timeout $TIMEOUT gemini -p "$PROMPT" --approval-mode "$APPROVAL_MODE" --output-format json

Error handling:

Exit code 0 with JSON → parse and return findings
Exit code 124 (timeout) → return SKIPPED with reason timeout_after_{n}s
Other exit codes → return SKIPPED with reason gemini CLI error: {stderr}
Invalid JSON output → attempt to extract structured content, else SKIPPED

After execution, run the bridge-commons Post-Analysis Protocol. Gemini uses stateless context passing between rounds — embed the full previous-round outputs and context packet in each subsequent gemini -p call. There is no session continuity between separate CLI invocations.

For standard and thorough intensity, construct the Round 2 prompt as:

{Agent Prompt Template for this role}

--- ROUND 2 CONTEXT ---
Previous round findings:
{JSON of all Round 1 outputs}

{context packet: open_challenges directed at this domain, synthesis}

Never block the calling orchestrator — always return a report (even if SKIPPED).

Subagent Mode

Gemini CLI supports custom subagents for parallel domain dispatch when experimental.enableAgents is set in .gemini/settings.json.

# Confirm subagents are enabled
cat .gemini/settings.json 2>/dev/null | python3 -c \
  "import sys,json; d=json.load(sys.stdin); print(d.get('experimental',{}).get('enableAgents', False))"

If true → spawn one subagent per domain; run consolidation pass after all complete
If false or missing → run standard single Gemini call covering all domains (valid fallback)

Subagent mode is a progressive enhancement. Record subagent_mode: true/false in output.

Output

See bridge-commons Output Schema. Bridge-specific fields:

{
  "bridge": "gemini",
  "capability_profile": "inspect | modify",
  "model_family": "google/gemini",
  "connection_used": "native-dispatch | cli",
  "subagent_mode": true
}

Output ID prefix: G (e.g., G001, G002).

Notes

Always check availability first — never assume gemini is installed
Use non-interactive mode only; always specify --approval-mode
Use --output-format json for structured parsing (not -o json)
Timeout is estimated from scope, not hardcoded — see bridge-commons formula
SKIPPED is a valid, non-error outcome

Resolve APPROVAL_MODE from bridge-commons:

inspect profile → use Gemini's non-mutating approval mode
modify profile → use Gemini's write-capable approval mode supported by the current runtime

Gemini approval settings are runtime details. The shared policy is capability_profile, derived from task_type.

bridge-gemini