gemini-cli/docs/npm.md

Package Overview

This monorepo contains two main packages: @google/gemini-cli and @google/gemini-cli-core.

@google/gemini-cli

This is the main package for the Gemini CLI. It is responsible for the user interface, command parsing, and all other user-facing functionality.

When this package is published, it is bundled into a single executable file. This bundle includes all of the package's dependencies, including @google/gemini-cli-core. This means that whether a user installs the package with npm install -g @google/gemini-cli or runs it directly with npx @google/gemini-cli, they are using this single, self-contained executable.

@google/gemini-cli-core

This package contains the core logic for interacting with the Gemini API. It is responsible for making API requests, handling authentication, and managing the local cache.

This package is not bundled. When it is published, it is published as a standard Node.js package with its own dependencies. This allows it to be used as a standalone package in other projects, if needed. All transpiled js code in the dist folder is included in the package.

NPM Workspaces

This project uses NPM Workspaces to manage the packages within this monorepo. This simplifies development by allowing us to manage dependencies and run scripts across multiple packages from the root of the project.

How it Works

The root package.json file defines the workspaces for this project:

{
  "workspaces": ["packages/*"]
}

This tells NPM that any folder inside the packages directory is a separate package that should be managed as part of the workspace.

Benefits of Workspaces

• Simplified Dependency Management: Running npm install from the root of the project will install all dependencies for all packages in the workspace and link them together. This means you don't need to run npm install in each package's directory.
• Automatic Linking: Packages within the workspace can depend on each other. When you run npm install, NPM will automatically create symlinks between the packages. This means that when you make changes to one package, the changes are immediately available to other packages that depend on it.
• Simplified Script Execution: You can run scripts in any package from the root of the project using the --workspace flag. For example, to run the build script in the cli package, you can run npm run build --workspace @google/gemini-cli.