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Gemini CLIAdvanced2 min read

Gemini Extensions & MCP — Building Custom Workflows

Understand Gemini CLI extensions, MCP integrations, and how to activate powerful Agent Skills for specialized tasks.

extensionsmcphooksskillscustomization

Official References: Extensions overview · Extension reference · Tools

Extensions are broader than "plugins"

Current Gemini CLI docs describe extensions as packages that can include:

  • prompts
  • MCP servers
  • custom commands
  • hooks
  • sub-agents
  • agent skills

The practical layering model

When customizing Gemini CLI, think in layers:

Layer 1: GEMINI.md

Use this for stable instructions and team rules (e.g., coding standards).

Layer 2: MCP servers

Use MCP when the model needs access to external systems (e.g., databases, internal docs, Jira).

Layer 3: Extensions & Skills

Use extensions when you want to package and share workflows across machines. This includes reusable internal commands and powerful Agent Skills.

The Power of Agent Skills

One of the most unique features of Gemini CLI is the ability to activate specialized expert modes via the activate_skill tool.

  • Built-in Skills: You can summon specialized procedures like security-review (hacker mindset for vulnerabilities), code-review (senior engineer refactoring), or web-clone (visual cloning from URLs).
  • Skill-Creator: By activating skill-creator, you can interactively teach the agent your team's unique workflow (e.g., "Our custom deployment checklist") and it will generate a SKILL.md to be reused permanently.

What you can manage today

Inside the interactive CLI:

/extensions list

From the terminal:

gemini extensions list
# Install from GitHub
gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/workspace

A strong team pattern

  1. Define repo rules in GEMINI.md.
  2. Add one or two essential MCP servers.
  3. Use skill-creator to formalize repetitive internal processes into skills.
  4. Once the workflow stabilizes, package it all as an extension to share with the team.

Recommendation for this project

If AI Native Notes keeps growing, a good Gemini CLI package would likely bundle:

  • content parity review commands
  • MDX frontmatter validation helpers
  • a custom locale-reviewer Agent Skill
  • maybe one MCP integration for docs or CMS systems later

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