Gemini CLI

MCP setup

Edit ~/.gemini/settings.json (or a project-local .gemini/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chime": {
      "command": "chime",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"],
      "env": { "CHIME_HOME": "~/.chime-gemini" }
    }
  }
}

The CHIME_HOME override keeps Gemini’s session state separate from any other harness you also run Chime with — this matters more here than elsewhere; see below.

Instructions

Gemini CLI concatenates GEMINI.md context files (global and per-project) into every prompt. If you want Gemini to pick up Chime’s agent runbook automatically, add a reference to it in your global or project GEMINI.md.

The alias story — read this one

Gemini CLI has no session-start lifecycle hook, unlike Claude Code or Codex — so Chime can’t automatically mint one shared CHIME_ALIAS for the session the way it does elsewhere. Set a dedicated CHIME_HOME (as in the config above) instead: Chime persists a session alias at $CHIME_HOME/session-alias, and as long as the MCP server and any chime CLI invocation in that session read from the same CHIME_HOME, they converge on the same alias with no hook needed at all.

Listening for replies

Gemini CLI has no Monitor-equivalent for streaming a live command into agent turns, so use the portable MCP pattern instead — see MCP:

chime_wait — block until the next reply arrives (or a timeout).
chime_receive — a non-blocking drain, for polling between work steps.

MCP — full tool reference.
Integrations — every harness and its status.