Google-Gemini-CLI user agent
Operated by Google
Google-Gemini-CLI is a user agent reported for Gemini CLI, Google's command-line AI agent, when it fetches web pages.
The Google-Gemini-CLI bot at a glance
- Google-Gemini-CLI is operated by Google and loads web pages in a browser to complete tasks on behalf of a user.
- The robots.txt token for Google-Gemini-CLI is Google-Gemini-CLI.
- Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings.
- Google-Gemini-CLI robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Your choice.
What is Google-Gemini-CLI?
Gemini CLI reads web pages a developer asks it to use.
Google has not listed this name on its fetcher page.
Should you block Google-Gemini-CLI?
Blocking Google-Gemini-CLI is a business decision: it protects your content but can lower how well AI products know your brand.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking stops agents from completing tasks on your website for their users, which can cost bookings or sales that agents would have made. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Your choice |
How to block or allow Google-Gemini-CLI
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token Google-Gemini-CLI is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop Google-Gemini-CLI, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block Google-Gemini-CLI
User-agent: Google-Gemini-CLI
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Google-Gemini-CLI
User-agent: Google-Gemini-CLI
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Google-Gemini-CLI out of private areas only
User-agent: Google-Gemini-CLI
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Google-Gemini-CLI
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(Google\-Gemini\-CLI)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Google-Gemini-CLI
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (Google\-Gemini\-CLI) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "Google-Gemini-CLI")How to verify real Google-Gemini-CLI traffic
Google publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Google-Gemini-CLI, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find Google-Gemini-CLI in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Google-Gemini-CLI requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "Google-Gemini-CLI" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
Google-Gemini-CLI FAQ
Google-Gemini-CLI uses the robots.txt token "Google-Gemini-CLI". Google does not publish a full user-agent string, so match the token inside the User-Agent header.
Google has not documented how Google-Gemini-CLI treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking an AI agent has no effect on search rankings. Blocking stops agents from completing tasks on your website for their users, which can cost bookings or sales that agents would have made.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: Google-Gemini-CLI" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Google publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Google-Gemini-CLI, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "Google-Gemini-CLI", for example with: grep -i "Google-Gemini-CLI" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Public bot registry. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
