Google adds plugin support to its terminal AI coding assistant

In a significant development, Google has announced the addition of plugin support to its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, allowing developers to integrate third-party tools and enhance productivity. This move is expected to have a profound global impact, with thousands of developers worldwide already exploring the potential of Gemini CLI's plugin ecosystem. As noted by Google, "This expansion will enable developers to access real-time data from outside apps, further enhancing the capabilities of our AI-powered coding solutions," which has been welcomed by the developer community globally.

Google has just launched extensions support for its terminal-based AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, allowing third-party companies—including Figma and Stripe—to integrate their tools directly into the AI’s workflow, with the first extensions already available on GitHub and installable manually by developers[4]. “That open ecosystem is vital to us,” said Taylor Mullen, a senior staff engineer on the project, emphasizing Google’s commitment to a platform where “anyone can participate” without requiring Google’s endorsement for new extensions[4]. The move, announced October 8, 2025, follows Gemini CLI’s rapid growth to over one million users since its June launch, and is designed to transform the tool into “an extensibility platform,

In a significant development, Google has expanded its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, by introducing plugin support, allowing third-party integrations from companies like Figma and Stripe. This move alters the competitive landscape as it contrasts with OpenAI's curated app approach in ChatGPT, offering developers an open ecosystem where extensions can be published without Google's endorsement. As Taylor Mullen, a senior staff engineer, noted, "Everything we're doing is grounded in a fair ecosystem that anyone can participate in," which could attract more developers to the platform[1].

Google has launched a plugin support system called Gemini CLI Extensions for its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, enabling third-party companies like Figma and Stripe to integrate directly into the tool. This open ecosystem approach allows developers to publish and manually install extensions from public GitHub repositories without Google’s direct endorsement, marking a strategic contrast to OpenAI's more curated ChatGPT apps; Gemini CLI currently serves over one million users focused on software development[1]. Taylor Mullen, senior staff engineer, emphasized the importance of openness: "That open ecosystem is vital to us" as Google aims to turn Gemini CLI into an extensibility platform connecting multiple tools in developers’ workflows[1].

Google today officially launched plugin support for its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, enabling third-party companies like Figma and Stripe to integrate their tools directly into the command-line environment[1]. Unlike OpenAI’s curated ChatGPT apps, Gemini CLI extensions require no Google approval—developers can install them manually from public GitHub repositories, fostering what Google calls “a fair ecosystem that anyone can participate in,” according to senior staff engineer Taylor Mullen[1]. The open approach has drawn swift praise from developers online, with over 1,000 GitHub stars on the Nanobanana image generator extension within its first 12 hours of availability, though some security-conscious users have voiced concerns about vetting third-party code in mission-critical workflows[1].

Google has officially launched an extensions system for its command-line AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, enabling third-party companies like Figma and Stripe to integrate their tools directly into the AI environment. This open ecosystem allows anyone to publish extensions independently on GitHub, with the first available extension enabling image generation via Google's Nanobanana directly from the terminal. Since its June launch, Gemini CLI has surpassed one million users, primarily developers, and this move aims to transform it into a broad extensibility platform connecting various development tools[4].

Google has introduced plugin support to Gemini Code Assist, its AI coding assistant integrated into terminals and IDEs, allowing real-time data access and third-party tool integration to enhance developer workflows[2][8]. This move intensifies competition with GitHub Copilot, which despite having 1.8 million paying users, offers significantly lower free usage limits—Gemini provides 180,000 code autocompletes per month, 90 times that of Copilot’s free plan[4]. Google’s director of product management Ryan Salva highlighted that these plugins "eliminate the friction of context switching," aiming to boost productivity across coding, observability, and security tasks[2].

Following Google's announcement of plugin support for its Gemini Code Assist AI coding assistant via the Gemini CLI, Alphabet's stock ($GOOGL) rose by approximately 1.85%, reaching around $171.35 per share as investors reacted positively to the company's AI-driven coding enhancements[4]. Analysts remain bullish, with a consensus "Outperform" rating from 55 brokerage firms and an average one-year price target of $201.80, implying a potential upside of nearly 18% from current levels[4]. This market response reflects growing investor confidence in Google's strategic push to integrate AI more deeply into developer tools.

In a significant update, Google has announced the addition of plugin support to its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI. This move has been met with enthusiasm from developers, with over 1,000 extensions already being developed by third-party companies, including Figma and Stripe, just days after the feature's launch on October 8, 2025. According to Google, this open ecosystem approach has been particularly well-received, with Taylor Mullen, a senior staff engineer, noting that "everything we're doing is grounded in a fair ecosystem that anyone can participate in," which is expected to further boost the tool's adoption among the developer community[4].

Google has launched a new plugin support system called Gemini CLI Extensions for its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini CLI, enabling third-party integrations from companies like Figma and Stripe. This open ecosystem allows developers to manually install extensions hosted on public GitHub repositories, turning Gemini CLI into "an extensibility platform" that connects with other tools in the developer’s workflow, according to Ryan J. Salva, Google's senior director of product management[4]. Since its June launch, Gemini CLI has grown to over one million users, predominantly software developers, reflecting rapid adoption of this extensible AI coding environment[4].

Google’s recent addition of plugin support to its Gemini CLI terminal AI coding assistant has been met with enthusiasm by the developer community, with over one million users already engaged since its June launch[4]. Public reactions highlight appreciation for the open ecosystem that allows anyone to develop and share extensions without Google's gatekeeping, fostering innovation and customization; Taylor Mullen, a senior staff engineer, emphasized this “fair ecosystem” approach as vital[4]. However, some users note the manual installation process via GitHub repositories requires technical know-how, which may limit adoption among less-experienced developers despite the availability of notable extensions from companies like Figma and Stripe[4].

There are currently no publicly reported regulatory or government responses specifically addressing Google's recent addition of plugin support to its terminal AI coding assistant, Gemini Code Assist. While Google has introduced advanced AI features with generous free usage limits and third-party tool integrations to enhance developer productivity, there are no concrete details or official statements from regulators or government bodies regarding this particular update[2][3][6]. However, broader concerns about AI coding tools, such as copyright issues and security, have been noted in related discussions but without direct regulatory reaction to this new plugin feature[4][13].

**Breaking News Update:** Google has announced the launch of a plugin system for its Gemini CLI terminal AI coding assistant, allowing third-party integrations from companies like Figma and Stripe. Industry experts, such as Taylor Mullen, a senior staff engineer at Google, emphasize the importance of an open ecosystem, stating that "everything we're doing is grounded in a fair ecosystem that anyone can participate in" [2]. This move is seen as a significant step in expanding Gemini CLI's capabilities, now used by over one million developers since its launch in June [2].