Agents CLI: Google turns your editor into an ADK specialist
Announced at Google Cloud Next, Agents CLI is a tool + skill pack on top of ADK that teaches your coding assistant the decisions a seasoned Agent Platform engineer would make. Agnostic — works with Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity.
Fabiano Brito
CEO & Founder
Agents CLI is a tool announced by Google that injects seven specialized skills into coding assistants to automate the entire lifecycle of an ADK agent. For enterprises, this eliminates the complexity of configuring dozens of Agent Platform components, providing the shortest and most secure path to deploying production-ready agents on Google Cloud.
The hard part about building an agent in 2026 is not writing SDK code — it is knowing which of the 40+ Agent Platform components to use, in what order, with what configuration. A generic coding assistant guesses. Agents CLI teaches it to make the calls a seasoned Agent Platform engineer would make.
The announcement is from Addy Osmani (Director, Google Cloud AI) at Google Cloud Next — complementing the Agent Platform launch on April 22.
The 7 skills Agents CLI installs
A single install injects a cohesive skill pack into your editor. They cover the agent from scaffold to surfacing — all aligned with the official ADK + Gemini Enterprise architecture.
🏗️ Project scaffolding
Correct initial layout — folder structure, pyproject.toml, ADK config, compatible version pins.
🧩 ADK workflow design
Pick between sequential, collaborative (multi-agent) or dynamic graph — with rationale for when each fits.
🚀 Agent Runtime deployment
Valid Runtime config with sub-second cold start, scaling and observability on day 1.
🛡️ Agent Sandbox integration
Least-privilege permissions by default; scoped tokens, isolated execution of generated code.
🔌 Tool wiring
Correct integration of MCP, A2A and native connectors — no more pasting tutorial YAML.
📊 Offline and online evaluation
Pre-seeded evaluation dataset + production metrics instrumentation to avoid silent regressions.
✨ Surfacing in Gemini Enterprise
Publishes the agent inside the Gemini Enterprise app — where the end user already is, without a custom front-end.
Before vs. after Agents CLI
MCP docs, ADK docs, gcloud docs, Runtime docs — today they live in four places. Agents CLI collapses that at the moment it matters: when the developer is asking the editor to generate code.
| Decision | Before (generic editor) | After (Agents CLI) |
|---|---|---|
| Which ADK graph type? | You pick by trial; the editor accepts anything | Skill recommends sequential / collaborative / dynamic with rationale |
| How to scope Sandbox permissions? | Copy tutorial, usually too broad | Least-privilege by default, tokens scoped to the use case |
| How to evaluate before production? | Skip the step or improvise manual tests | Pre-seeded dataset + offline and online evaluation suite |
| Where to publish to end users? | Custom Streamlit or equivalent front-end | Native surfacing in the Gemini Enterprise app |
| MCP, A2A and connectors | Four doc pages open across four tabs | One skill guides when to use each protocol |
The concrete flow: "scaffold a customer-support agent"
Addy describes the use loop with a real prompt. Editor with Claude Code or Antigravity attached, you type:
"Scaffold a customer-support agent that calls our order-status MCP server and logs to Observability."
The skills fire in sequence — you review and commit:
Standard ADK structure, pinned dependencies, documented environment variables.
Explicit choice between sequential, collaborative or dynamic — with a rationale paragraph in the README.
Agent Runtime wired for cold start, scaling, Observability plugged in from the start.
The agent only sees the order-status MCP; no extra permissions granted "just in case".
Canonical customer-support cases already in the repo — you leave zero with a measurable baseline.
What the design gets right
Three architectural choices that separate "yet another scaffolder" from a tool teams will actually adopt:
- Coding-assistant agnostic. Works with Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity — the editor choice stays yours. No extra lock-in.
- Discovery-first. Skills explain why a decision was made, not just what. The assistant teaches while it builds — your team gets better at Agent Platform on the job.
- Reduces fragmented-docs friction. Knowledge arrives at the right moment, inside the editor, not across four parallel tabs.
The goal is that your coding assistant teaches as it builds — so the humans on your team also get better at Agent Platform.
Honest caveats before you adopt
None of this invalidates the tool — but it sets the right contract: Agents CLI is a decision accelerator, not a replacement for architectural review. In Autenticare projects we keep a rule: the skill suggests, the human approves, Git records.
Where to start
- Install Agents CLI in your favorite editor (Claude Code, Codex or Antigravity).
- Scaffold a small agent — a low-risk internal case, ideally read-only on the first iteration.
- Read the rationale the skill wrote in the README before committing. That is the part that teaches.
- Enable Observability before any write to a production system.
- Add your own evaluation dataset alongside the pre-seeded one — to measure your case, not the generic one.
Frequently Asked Questions sobre Agents CLI: Google turns your editor into an ADK specialist
What is the Agents CLI? The Agents CLI installs 7 skills in your coding assistant and covers the entire lifecycle of an ADK agent: scaffolding, workflow design, deployment to Agent Runtime, Sandbox, MCP/A2A wiring, evaluation, and surfacing in Gemini Enterprise.
Who announced the Agents CLI? Addy Osmani (Director, Google Cloud AI) announced the Agents CLI at Google Cloud Next.
What are the 7 skills that the Agents CLI installs? The Agents CLI installs skills for project scaffolding, ADK workflow design, deployment to Agent Runtime, integration with Agent Sandbox, tool wiring, offline and online evaluation, and surfacing in Gemini Enterprise.
Where does the Agents CLI publish the agent? The Agents CLI publishes the agent to the Gemini Enterprise app.
Want your first ADK agent in production in 30 days?
We pick the use case, apply Agents CLI with your team's editor, define governance (Sandbox, evaluation, Observability) and go live on Gemini Enterprise. Zero boilerplate, maximum knowledge transfer.