littleguys for Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI,
as a chat.

By herval · Published October 19, 2026

littleguys is a free, open-source Mac app that gives Google's Gemini CLI a chat window. Add it once and Gemini CLI becomes a contact you talk to the way you'd talk to a friend on WhatsApp: each thread works in a folder you pick, its replies and tool calls stream in, and the commands it wants to run show up as cards you approve. The little guy in your menu bar tells you when it needs you. It runs the real Gemini CLI, over the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), with the login you already have.

Is there a GUI for Gemini CLI on Mac?

Yes, a few, and which one fits depends on what you want around it. littleguys is the small one (17 MB): Gemini CLI as a WhatsApp-style chat, next to your other agents. gemini-cli-desktop (free, MIT, 12 MB) is a desktop app for Gemini CLI and Qwen Code alone. AionUi (free, Apache-2.0, about 290 MB) is a bigger workspace for 20+ CLI agents. If you want Gemini inside your code, Zed and JetBrains IDEs add Gemini CLI from the ACP registry. Google's own Gemini Mac app is something else: an assistant that doesn't run Gemini CLI.

Sizes are each app's macOS download, checked on October 19, 2026.

Can I still use Gemini CLI with a free Google account?

No, not since June 18, 2026. Google stopped serving Gemini CLI on its unpaid tier and to Google One, Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and moved them to its Antigravity CLI. Gemini CLI still works with paid Gemini API keys and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform keys, and for organizations with a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise license. littleguys works with whichever of those you sign in with. It doesn't add Antigravity for you yet.

What you get

• One contact, as many threads as you like, each working in the folder you pick. Replies stream in, with Gemini CLI's tool calls as they happen.
• Approvals as cards: when Gemini CLI wants to run a shell command or change a file, you allow it once, always allow it (when it offers that), or deny it. The menu bar shows when one is waiting.
• Images and files: attach them to a message, as you would in a chat.
• Its own setup, in the Skills tab: the skills in .gemini/skills and .agents/skills, the extensions in ~/.gemini/extensions, and the MCP servers from its settings.json and extensions, for the folder and for you. It only shows them; you change them in Gemini CLI.
• Threads that remember: come back to a thread after a restart and Gemini CLI reloads its session, so it knows what you talked about.
• Routines: a prompt on a schedule, with run-now and history. Results land in a thread.
• Next to everything else: the same window holds your Claude Code sessions and Codex, and your OpenClaw and Hermes agents.

Set it up

1. Sign in to Gemini CLI once, in Terminal: run gemini (or npx @google/gemini-cli if it isn't installed) and sign in with an account it still serves (above). littleguys uses that login, and tells you if it isn't signed in.
2. Install Node.js (brew install node). littleguys starts Gemini CLI with npx, the way the ACP registry lists it.
3. Install littleguys with Homebrew or the .dmg (below), 17 MB.
4. Add a bot → Agents (ACP), pick Gemini CLI, choose the folder it works in, and click Add. The first start downloads Gemini CLI.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't show the Gemini CLI sessions you run in a terminal. littleguys starts its own Gemini CLI and talks to it over ACP.
• It isn't an editor: no file tree, diff review or terminal. Gemini CLI reads and changes files with its own tools, in the folder you pick.
• You can't pick Gemini's model in littleguys yet. Gemini CLI uses its default, or the model set in its own settings.
• Routines run only while littleguys is open. A run that comes due while it's closed is skipped, not caught up later.
• It's a Mac app only, for macOS 13 or later.

brew install herval/tap/littleguys