Google open source developer tools Gemini CLI

Google Quietly Kills Open-Source Gemini CLI and Replaces It With Something Far Less Open

21 May 2026

Google is replacing its open-source Gemini CLI tool with the new closed-source Antigravity CLI, with most free and paid consumer users losing access to Gemini CLI on June 18, 2026, while enterprise customers and those with paid API keys are exempt. Developers have reacted angrily to the switch, citing the lack of open-source code for Antigravity CLI, reported usage limit issues, and concerns that open-source community contributions were used to build a proprietary replacement. Google has acknowledged there will not be full feature parity at launch and that Gemini CLI will continue to be maintained, but only for paying enterprise customers.

The Gemini CLI is being put out to pasture. From June 18, Google will stop serving requests for the open-source development agent across most of its user tiers, replacing it with a new tool called Antigravity CLI that launched at Google I/O this week. Developers are not pleased.

Google's pitch for Antigravity CLI centres on unifying its command-line AI agent tooling and improving multi-agent support. Fine in theory. The problem is that unlike Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI does not appear to be open source. The Gemini CLI GitHub repo contains full source code. The Antigravity CLI GitHub repo contains a readme, a changelog, and a GIF. That's it.

For paying enterprise customers and those using Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences, nothing changes immediately. Gemini CLI will also remain accessible via paid API keys. Everyone else, meaning free-tier users and Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, gets cut off on June 18. Gemini Code Assist for GitHub will stop accepting new installations the same day, with full service termination to follow shortly after.

Google was at least upfront about one thing: Antigravity CLI will not arrive with feature parity. Agent skills, hooks, subagents, and extensions are supposedly supported at launch, but other functionality from Gemini CLI may take time to reappear. Or it might not come back at all.

The backlash landed fast. Gemini CLI Lead Product Manager Dmitry Lyalin posted an update to GitHub trying to smooth things over, and the comments turned hostile quickly. Usage limits are a recurring complaint, with multiple developers reporting they burned through their weekly quota after only a handful of requests. The Antigravity CLI issues page is filling up with similar grievances.

There is also a more pointed accusation circulating: that Google accepted open-source contributions to Gemini CLI and is now using that work to underpin a closed-source commercial product. Whether or not that framing is entirely fair, it is the kind of thing that tends to stick.

Lyalin did clarify that the Gemini CLI repository stays up under its Apache 2.0 licence and that Google will continue maintaining it with model updates, bug fixes, and security patches. For enterprise customers. The open-source project will live on, technically. Just not for the people who built things on top of it expecting it to remain accessible.

Google did not respond to requests for comment.