Google (Gemini)

The Google plugin provides access to Gemini models through Google AI Studio, plus image generation, media understanding (image/audio/video), and web search via Gemini Grounding.

Provider: google
Auth: GEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY
API: Google Gemini API
Alternative provider: google-gemini-cli (OAuth)

Getting started

Choose your preferred auth method and follow the setup steps.

API key
Gemini CLI (OAuth)

Best for: standard Gemini API access through Google AI Studio.

Run onboarding

velaclaw onboard --auth-choice gemini-api-key

Or pass the key directly:

velaclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice gemini-api-key \
  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY"

Set a default model

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview" },
    },
  },
}

Verify the model is available

velaclaw models list --provider google

The environment variables GEMINI_API_KEY and GOOGLE_API_KEY are both accepted. Use whichever you already have configured.

Best for: reusing an existing Gemini CLI login via PKCE OAuth instead of a separate API key.

The google-gemini-cli provider is an unofficial integration. Some users report account restrictions when using OAuth this way. Use at your own risk.

Install the Gemini CLI

The local gemini command must be available on PATH.

# Homebrew
brew install gemini-cli

# or npm
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Velaclaw supports both Homebrew installs and global npm installs, including common Windows/npm layouts.

velaclaw models auth login --provider google-gemini-cli --set-default

Verify the model is available

velaclaw models list --provider google-gemini-cli

Default model: google-gemini-cli/gemini-3-flash-preview
Alias: gemini-cli

Environment variables:

VELACLAW_GEMINI_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID
VELACLAW_GEMINI_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET

(Or the GEMINI_CLI_* variants.)

If Gemini CLI OAuth requests fail after login, set GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID on the gateway host and retry.

If login fails before the browser flow starts, make sure the local gemini command is installed and on PATH.

The OAuth-only google-gemini-cli provider is a separate text-inference surface. Image generation, media understanding, and Gemini Grounding stay on the google provider id.

Capabilities

Capability	Supported
Chat completions	Yes
Image generation	Yes
Music generation	Yes
Image understanding	Yes
Audio transcription	Yes
Video understanding	Yes
Web search (Grounding)	Yes
Thinking/reasoning	Yes (Gemini 3.1+)
Gemma 4 models	Yes

Gemma 4 models (for example gemma-4-26b-a4b-it) support thinking mode. Velaclaw rewrites thinkingBudget to a supported Google thinkingLevel for Gemma 4. Setting thinking to off preserves thinking disabled instead of mapping to MINIMAL.

Image generation

The bundled google image-generation provider defaults to google/gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview.

Also supports google/gemini-3-pro-image-preview
Generate: up to 4 images per request
Edit mode: enabled, up to 5 input images
Geometry controls: size, aspectRatio, and resolution

To use Google as the default image provider:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      imageGenerationModel: {
        primary: "google/gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview",
      },
    },
  },
}

See Image Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Video generation

The bundled google plugin also registers video generation through the shared video_generate tool.

Default video model: google/veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview
Modes: text-to-video, image-to-video, and single-video reference flows
Supports aspectRatio, resolution, and audio
Current duration clamp: 4 to 8 seconds

To use Google as the default video provider:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      videoGenerationModel: {
        primary: "google/veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview",
      },
    },
  },
}

See Video Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Music generation

The bundled google plugin also registers music generation through the shared music_generate tool.

Default music model: google/lyria-3-clip-preview
Also supports google/lyria-3-pro-preview
Prompt controls: lyrics and instrumental
Output format: mp3 by default, plus wav on google/lyria-3-pro-preview
Reference inputs: up to 10 images
Session-backed runs detach through the shared task/status flow, including action: "status"

To use Google as the default music provider:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      musicGenerationModel: {
        primary: "google/lyria-3-clip-preview",
      },
    },
  },
}

See Music Generation for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Advanced configuration

Direct Gemini cache reuse

For direct Gemini API runs (api: "google-generative-ai"), Velaclaw passes a configured cachedContent handle through to Gemini requests.

Configure per-model or global params with either cachedContent or legacy cached_content
If both are present, cachedContent wins
Example value: cachedContents/prebuilt-context
Gemini cache-hit usage is normalized into Velaclaw cacheRead from upstream cachedContentTokenCount

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "google/gemini-2.5-pro": {
          params: {
            cachedContent: "cachedContents/prebuilt-context",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Gemini CLI JSON usage notes

When using the google-gemini-cli OAuth provider, Velaclaw normalizes the CLI JSON output as follows:

Reply text comes from the CLI JSON response field.
Usage falls back to stats when the CLI leaves usage empty.
stats.cached is normalized into Velaclaw cacheRead.
If stats.input is missing, Velaclaw derives input tokens from stats.input_tokens - stats.cached.

Environment and daemon setup

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure GEMINI_API_KEY is available to that process (for example, in ~/.velaclaw/.env or via env.shellEnv).

Model selection

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Image generation

Shared image tool parameters and provider selection.

Video generation

Shared video tool parameters and provider selection.

Music generation

Shared music tool parameters and provider selection.

Overview

Concepts and configuration

Providers

Google (Gemini)

Google (Gemini)

Getting started

Capabilities

Image generation

Video generation

Music generation

Advanced configuration

Model selection

Image generation

Video generation

Music generation

​Google (Gemini)

​Getting started

​Capabilities

​Image generation

​Video generation

​Music generation

​Advanced configuration

​Related

Model selection

Image generation

Video generation

Music generation

Google (Gemini)

Getting started

Capabilities

Image generation

Video generation

Music generation

Advanced configuration

Related