Google launches AI coding agents Jules & Gemini CLI for GitHub

Google has significantly advanced its commitment to AI-powered developer tools with the official launch of its AI coding agent, Jules, and the new Gemini CLI GitHub Actions. These releases underscore Google’s strategic push towards “agentic development,” where artificial intelligence takes on increasingly autonomous roles within the software development lifecycle, aiming to enhance productivity and streamline workflows for developers worldwide.

Jules, now publicly available after a successful beta phase, is an asynchronous AI coding agent powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s advanced AI model renowned for its logical reasoning and planning capabilities. Designed to function as a highly intelligent teammate, Jules can interpret complex requests, formulate detailed coding plans, and execute tasks in parallel, mimicking the efficiency of a team of engineers. It operates by cloning a codebase into a secure Google Cloud virtual machine, ensuring a safe environment for experimentation without impacting live projects. Developers can delegate a wide array of tasks to Jules, from writing tests and building new features to fixing bugs, updating dependencies, and even generating audio changelogs. The agent provides transparency by presenting its proposed plan, reasoning, and a diff of changes for review and approval, seamlessly integrating with GitHub to create pull requests. While an introductory tier caters to casual users and side projects, Google also offers Pro and Ultra tiers with substantially higher usage limits for professionals and enterprise-level multi-agent workflows, reflecting its commitment to scaling AI assistance across the developer spectrum.

Complementing Jules, Google has also rolled out Gemini CLI GitHub Actions, extending the capabilities of its previously launched Gemini CLI. This open-source AI agent seamlessly integrates with GitHub repositories, leveraging GitHub Actions as its compute service. It functions as both an autonomous agent for routine tasks and an on-demand collaborator. Developers can tag @gemini-cli in GitHub issues or pull requests to delegate work, triggering the agent to operate asynchronously in the background. Key functionalities include intelligent issue triage, where Gemini CLI can analyze, label, and prioritize incoming issues, and accelerated pull request reviews, providing instant feedback on code quality, style, and correctness. This tool is particularly suited for quicker updates and fixes, offering a focused scope compared to Jules’ broader codebase analysis capabilities.

Both Jules and Gemini CLI GitHub Actions align with Google’s broader strategy of embedding AI deeply into its developer ecosystem and democratizing access to powerful AI tools. While Gemini CLI GitHub Actions is offered at no cost, users require a Google API Studio API key, and subsequent API usage beyond the free tier may incur charges, as do GitHub Actions compute minutes. Vertex AI and Gemini Code Assist (Standard and Enterprise tiers) users gain immediate access, with plans to extend availability to individual users on the free version of Code Assist soon. Google emphasizes robust security measures, including Workload Identity Federation, to ensure data privacy and control.

These new agents represent a significant step in Google’s vision for an “agentic shift,” transforming how software is built by providing intelligent, collaborative AI assistants that handle mundane tasks, allowing developers to focus on higher-level design and creative problem-solving.