ask-gemini-skill

README

ask-gemini

A small CLI that asks Google Gemini for a second opinion, with conversation history across calls and support for attaching photos, videos, and audio. Ships with a Claude Code skill that wraps it.

Install

From a tagged release:

go install github.com/akostibas/ask-gemini-skill/cmd/ask-gemini@latest

From a local clone (installs the binary and the Claude skill in one step):

make install

Both paths drop an ask-gemini binary into $(go env GOBIN), falling back to $(go env GOPATH)/bin when GOBIN is unset — make sure that directory is on your PATH. make install additionally copies skill/ into ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini/; override either location with GOBIN=... or SKILL_DIR=....

make build produces a local ./ask-gemini binary without installing anything, handy for quick iteration.

Installing from a tagged version (e.g. @v1.0.0) lets ask-gemini --version report that tag; @latest off an untagged commit reports a pseudo-version. make build/make install inject the version from git describe so local builds report something meaningful too.

Configure credentials

ask-gemini reads the API key in this order:

1. The GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable.
2. The ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND environment variable, treated as a shell command whose stdout is the key.

Pick whichever fits your secrets workflow. Examples:

# Plain env var
export GEMINI_API_KEY=...

# 1Password CLI
export ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND='op item get "Gemini API" --fields password --reveal'

# pass
export ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND='pass show gemini/api-key'

# macOS keychain
export ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND='security find-generic-password -s gemini-api -w'

ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND is meant to invoke a secrets manager — don't inline the key itself (e.g. export ASK_GEMINI_KEY_COMMAND='echo AIza...'), since the command and its arguments are visible to other processes via ps. If you want the key directly in the environment, use GEMINI_API_KEY.

Install the Claude skill

make install already places the skill at ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini/. If you installed via go install instead — or want the skill to track this working tree — symlink it:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini
ln -s "$(pwd)/skill/SKILL.md" ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini/SKILL.md

Then invoke it as /ask-gemini in Claude Code. See skill/SKILL.md for the full skill instructions.

Usage

ask-gemini [flags] <prompt>
echo 'prompt' | ask-gemini [flags]
echo 'payload' | ask-gemini [flags] <prompt>

When both a positional prompt and piped stdin are given, the stdin body is appended to the arg prompt (separated by a blank line) — useful for putting a framing question in the arg and the payload on stdin.

Flags:

• --session <name> — name the conversation; persisted at $TMPDIR/ask-gemini-<name>.json. Reuse the name for follow-up turns.
• --reset — delete the named session and exit.
• --photo <path> — attach an image (repeatable).
• --video <path> — attach a video (repeatable). Waits for File API processing.
• --audio <path> — attach an audio file (repeatable).
• --model <id> — override the model (default gemini-3.5-flash).
• --system <prompt> — system prompt; only applied on the first turn.
• --history — print the current conversation and exit.
• --version — print the binary version and exit.

File API uploads are retained by Google for ~48 hours, so a single --session consult can keep referencing attachments across turns without re-uploading.

Bugs and feature requests

Open an issue at https://github.com/akostibas/ask-gemini-skill/issues. Include the command you ran, what happened (stdout/stderr/exit code), what you expected, and a minimal repro.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.