superpowers/skills/using-superpowers/references/gemini-tools.md

Gemini CLI Tool Mapping

Skills speak in actions ("dispatch a subagent", "create a todo", "read a file"). On Gemini CLI these resolve to the tools below.

Action skills request	Gemini CLI equivalent
Read a file	read_file
Read multiple files at once	read_many_files
Create a new file	write_file
Edit a file	replace
Run a shell command	run_shell_command
Search file contents	grep_search
Find files by name	glob
List files and subdirectories	list_directory
Fetch a URL	web_fetch
Search the web	google_web_search
Invoke a skill	activate_skill
Dispatch a subagent (Subagent (general-purpose): template)	invoke_agent with agent_name: "generalist" (invocable via @generalist chat syntax — see Subagent support)
Multiple parallel dispatches	Multiple invoke_agent calls in the same response
Task tracking ("create a todo", "mark complete")	write_todos (statuses: pending, in_progress, completed, cancelled, blocked)

Instructions file

When a skill mentions "your instructions file", on Gemini CLI this is GEMINI.md. Gemini CLI loads GEMINI.md hierarchically: global at ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md, project-level files in workspace directories and their ancestors, and sub-directory GEMINI.md files when a tool accesses files in those directories.

Personal skills directory

User-level skills live at ~/.gemini/skills/, with ~/.agents/skills/ as a cross-runtime alias (shared with Codex and Copilot CLI). When both directories exist at the same scope, .agents/skills/ takes precedence. Each skill is a subdirectory containing a SKILL.md (with name and description frontmatter).

Subagent support

Gemini CLI dispatches subagents through the invoke_agent tool, which takes agent_name and prompt parameters. The same dispatch is also surfaced as a chat-syntax shortcut: typing @generalist <prompt> is equivalent to calling invoke_agent with agent_name: "generalist". Built-in agent names include generalist, cli_help, codebase_investigator, and (with browser tooling enabled) browser_agent.

Skills dispatch with Subagent (general-purpose): and either reference a prompt-template file (e.g., superpowers:subagent-driven-development's ./implementer-prompt.md) or supply an inline prompt. On Gemini CLI:

Skill dispatch form	Gemini CLI equivalent
References a *-prompt.md template (implementer, spec-reviewer, code-quality-reviewer, code-reviewer, etc.)	Fill the template, then invoke_agent with agent_name: "generalist" and the filled prompt
References superpowers:requesting-code-review's ./code-reviewer.md	invoke_agent with agent_name: "generalist" and the filled review template
Inline prompt (no template referenced)	invoke_agent with agent_name: "generalist" and your inline prompt

Prompt filling

Skills provide prompt templates with placeholders like {WHAT_WAS_IMPLEMENTED} or [FULL TEXT of task]. Fill all placeholders before passing the complete prompt to invoke_agent. The prompt template itself contains the agent's role, review criteria, and expected output format — the subagent will follow it.

Parallel dispatch

Gemini CLI supports parallel subagent dispatch. Issue multiple invoke_agent calls in the same response (or multiple @generalist invocations in one prompt) to run independent subagent work in parallel. Keep dependent tasks sequential, but do not serialize independent subagent tasks just to preserve a simpler history.

Additional Gemini CLI tools

These tools are unique to Gemini CLI:

Tool	Purpose
save_memory (legacy)	Persist facts across sessions when experimental.memoryV2 = false
get_internal_docs	Look up Gemini CLI's bundled documentation
ask_user	Pose structured questions to the user (text / single-select / multi-select)
enter_plan_mode / exit_plan_mode	Switch into and out of read-only plan mode
update_topic	Update the current conversation's topic / strategic-intent metadata
complete_task	Signal that a Gemini subagent has completed and return its result to the parent agent
tracker_create_task, tracker_update_task, tracker_get_task, tracker_list_tasks, tracker_add_dependency, tracker_visualize	Rich task tracker with dependency and visualization support
read_mcp_resource, list_mcp_resources	MCP resource access