Getting Started¶

Agents CLI in Agent Platform is a CLI and skills package for building, evaluating, and deploying AI agents on Google Cloud. Agents are built with Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK) — Agents CLI handles everything around it: scaffolding, evaluation, deployment, and observability.

It works two ways:

With a coding agent — install skills into Gemini CLI, Claude Code, Codex, or others. Your coding agent uses them to make the right decisions at every step.
Without a coding agent — run CLI commands directly from your terminal. Every command works standalone.

Agents CLI bundles 7 skills that give your coding agent deep knowledge across the full ADK lifecycle:

Skill	What your coding agent learns
`google-agents-cli-workflow`	Development lifecycle, code preservation, model selection
`google-agents-cli-adk-code`	ADK Python API — agents, tools, orchestration, callbacks
`google-agents-cli-scaffold`	Project scaffolding — `create`, `enhance`, `upgrade`
`google-agents-cli-eval`	Evaluation — metrics, evalsets, LLM-as-judge
`google-agents-cli-deploy`	Deployment — Agent Runtime, Cloud Run, GKE, CI/CD
`google-agents-cli-publish`	Gemini Enterprise registration
`google-agents-cli-observability`	Cloud Trace, logging, third-party integrations

Prerequisites¶

Required: Python 3.11+, uv, Node.js (for skills installation)

Optional (for deployment): Google Cloud SDK, Terraform

Install¶

uvx google-agents-cli setup

This installs the CLI and context-aware skills for your coding agent.

Alternative installation methods

pipx: pipx install google-agents-cli && agents-cli setup

venv + pip: pip install google-agents-cli && agents-cli setup

Skills only: npx skills add google/agents-cli

Platform support: macOS, Linux, and Windows (WSL 2). Native Windows is not officially supported.

Authenticate¶

If you're already authenticated with gcloud, it just works — Agents CLI picks up your Application Default Credentials automatically.

Otherwise, the quickest option is a Gemini API key from AI Studio:

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-key-here"

See Authentication for full details.

Start Building with Your Coding Agent¶

Gemini CLIClaude CodeCodexAntigravityAny Other Agent

Open Gemini CLI
```
gemini
```
Verify skills are installed
```
/skills
```
You should see google-agents-cli-workflow and other Agents CLI skills listed.
Ask it to build something
```
Build a support agent that answers questions from our docs
```
Gemini will use the installed skills to scaffold, build, and evaluate your agent.

Open Claude Code
```
claude
```
Verify skills are installed
```
/skills
```
You should see google-agents-cli-workflow and other Agents CLI skills listed.
Ask it to build something
```
Build a support agent that answers questions from our docs
```
Claude will use the installed skills to scaffold, build, and evaluate your agent.

Open Codex
```
codex
```
Verify skills are installed

Check that Agents CLI skills are available in your environment.
Ask it to build something
```
Build a support agent that answers questions from our docs
```
Codex will use the installed skills to scaffold, build, and evaluate your agent.

Open Antigravity

Launch Antigravity from your IDE or terminal.
Verify skills are installed

Check that Agents CLI skills are available in your environment.
Ask it to build something
```
Build a support agent that answers questions from our docs
```
Antigravity will use the installed skills to scaffold, build, and evaluate your agent.

Agents CLI works with any coding agent that supports skills.

Install skills
```
uvx google-agents-cli setup
```
Verify skills are visible

Check that your agent can see google-agents-cli-workflow and other Agents CLI skills. Most agents expose this via a /skills command or settings panel.
Ask it to build something
```
Build a support agent that answers questions from our docs
```
As long as the skills are installed and visible, your agent will use them automatically.

Prefer to Type Commands Yourself?¶

You can drive the entire workflow from your terminal — no coding agent needed.

# Create a minimal agent project
agents-cli create my-agent --prototype --yes

# Install dependencies and start the dev playground
cd my-agent
agents-cli install
agents-cli playground

This starts the ADK web playground at http://localhost:8080 with hot reload.

For a full walkthrough, see the Manual Workflow Tutorial.

Demo¶

Next Steps¶

Tutorial: Build Your First Agent — build, evaluate, and deploy with your coding agent
Tutorial: Manual Workflow — type every command yourself
Use Cases — get inspired by real agent patterns people build
Project Structure — understand what each generated file does
Agent Templates — choose the right template (adk, adk_a2a, agentic_rag)
Development Guide — full development workflow
CLI Reference — all commands and flags

Coming from Agent Starter Pack?

See the migration guide.

Share what you build

Built something interesting with Agents CLI? We'd love to hear about it! Share your project at agents-cli@google.com.