akostibas/ask-gemini-skill

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.
## Setup
From a local clone (installs the binary and the Claude skill):
sh
make install
Or just the binary, from anywhere:
sh
go install github.com/akostibas/ask-gemini-skill/cmd/ask-gemini@latest
The binary lands in $(go env GOBIN), falling back to $(go env GOPATH)/bin.
make install also copies skill/ to ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini/; override
either with GOBIN=... or SKILLDIR=.... If you used go install and want
the Claude skill too, symlink it:
sh
ln -s "$(pwd)/skill/SKILL.md" ~/.claude/skills/ask-gemini/SKILL.md
Then configure credentials. ask-gemini reads the API key in this order:
1. GEMINIAPIKEY — the key directly.
2. ASKGEMINIKEYCOMMAND — a shell command whose stdout is the key.
sh
export GEMINIAPIKEY=AIza...
# or, via a secrets manager:
export ASKGEMINIKEYCOMMAND='op item get "Gemini API" --fields password --reveal'
export ASKGEMINIKEYCOMMAND='security find-generic-password -s gemini-api -w'
Don't inline the key into ASKGEMINIKEYCOMMAND (e.g. 'echo AIza...') —
command arguments are visible to other processes via ps. Use
GEMINIAPIKEY for that.
## Usage
ask-gemini [flags]
echo 'prompt' | ask-gemini [flags]
echo 'payload' | ask-gemini [flags]
When both a positional prompt and stdin are given, stdin is appended to the
prompt, separated by a blank line.
Flags:
--session — name the conversation; persisted at
$TMPDIR/ask-gemini- .json. Reuse the name for follow-up turns.
--reset — delete the named session and exit.
--photo — attach an image (repeatable).
--video — attach a video (repeatable). Waits for File API processing.
--audio — attach an audio file (repeatable).
--out — generate an image (or a video, for .mp4) and write it to (see below).
--resolution — video resolution (default 360p).
--model — override the model (default gemini-4-argon).
--system — 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
can keep referencing attachments across turns without re-uploading.
### Usage and cost
After every request, a token-usage line and an estimated cost print to
stderr (so they never mix into the answer on stdout):
usage: 54 in + 74 out (73 thinking) = 128 tokens
est. cost: ~$0.000848 (gemini-4-argon, prices as of 2026-10)
The token counts come straight from the API and are exact; "thinking" is hidden
reasoning tokens (billed at the output rate). The dollar figure is an estimate
from a small price table baked into the tool (cmd/ask-gemini/pricing.go) — it
can drift when Google changes prices, so it's stamped with the date it was last
verified. A model with no entry in that table still prints tokens, with
cost: unknown. Silence the whole line with ASKGEMININOUSAGE=1.
### Generating images (Nano Banana)
Pass --out to generate an image instead of text:
sh
ask-gemini --out logo.png "a minimalist fox logo, flat vector style"
--out auto-selects an image model (gemini-nano-banana-2.1,