Using Gemini CLI skills: paths, commands and limits

Gemini CLI skills at a glance

Gemini CLI skills are self-contained folders that the model activates when a task matches the skill’s description. Workspace skills go in .gemini/skills/ or .agents/skills/. User skills go in ~/.gemini/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/. Install from a repository with gemini skills install <git-url> or with npx skills add owner/repo -a gemini-cli. Of the 195 repositories we reviewed, 57 say they support Gemini CLI.

One change to know about first: the Gemini CLI docs carry a notice that Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026, for unpaid-tier and Google One users. The skills CLI table lists Antigravity CLI separately, with the flag antigravity-cli, the project folder .agents/skills/ and the global folder ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/skills/.

Where Gemini CLI looks for skills

Four tiers exist, listed from lowest to highest precedence: built-in skills, extension skills, user skills and workspace skills. If two skills share a name, the higher tier wins. Within the user or workspace tier, .agents/skills/ takes precedence over .gemini/skills/.

At session start, only the name and description of each enabled skill go into the system prompt. The full SKILL.md loads on activation.

The consent prompt

When a task matches a description, the model calls the activate_skill tool. Gemini CLI then shows a confirmation with the skill’s name, its purpose and the directory path it will access. After you approve, the SKILL.md body and folder structure enter the conversation, and the skill’s directory is added to the allowed file paths so bundled assets can be read.

The prompt tells you which folder a skill gets access to. It does not tell you what the skill’s scripts do, so you still need to read them.

Installing and managing skills

From a terminal:

gemini skills list --all
gemini skills install https://github.com/user/repo.git
gemini skills uninstall my-skill --scope workspace

--scope takes user (the default) or workspace. --path picks a subdirectory inside a Git repo, and --consent skips the interactive installation confirmation. Leave that flag off for repositories you haven’t read.

Inside a session, /skills list, /skills enable <name>, /skills disable <name>, /skills link <path> and /skills reload manage what is loaded. Enable and disable default to user scope, and --scope workspace changes workspace settings. The docs list link, enable and disable only as slash commands.

Developing a skill locally

/skills link <path> links skills from a local directory, so you can edit a skill and test it without reinstalling. --scope decides whether the link applies to you or to the workspace. After edits, /skills reload (or /skills refresh) pulls changes from all tiers. Workspace skills are shared through version control, so a skill committed to .gemini/skills/ or .agents/skills/ reaches the whole team. Review such commits as you would a change to a build script.

What to check before you install

Among the 57 repositories that list Gemini CLI, 35 are marked “review before installing” and 22 “broad access” in our review. Two examples:

• google/skills is official and detailed, with 182 skills for Google Cloud, Ads and Analytics. Its scripts call Google APIs with your gcloud credentials, and several create or change cloud resources. Marked “broad access”.
• google-labs-code/stitch-skills is official too. Nearly all its skills pre-approve unrestricted shell access, and the upload skill reads your Stitch API key from agent config files after you confirm. Marked “broad access”.

The security page has the full checklist, and how we review explains the statuses. The pack list below is filtered to repositories that mention Gemini CLI.