Extensions — Bundled Tool Sets

~12 min · gemini, extensions, tools

Level 0🌱 Novice

0 XP0/70 lessons0/11 achievements

0/120 XP to next level120 XP to go0% complete

Extensions package related capabilities together

Gemini Extensions are reusable bundles of tools, MCP servers, and prompts. Examples: cloud-run (deploy to Google Cloud Run), nano-banana (image generation via Gemini's Nano Banana model), research (web search + synthesis), and many more in the public registry.

Install via gemini extensions install <name>. Once installed, the bundled tools become available in your sessions. gemini extensions list shows what's active; gemini extensions disable <name> turns one off without uninstalling.

Code

Install + use an extension·bash

# Browse available
gemini extensions browse

# Install
gemini extensions install cloud-run
gemini extensions install nano-banana

# List active
gemini extensions list

# In a session, the bundled tools are now available:
# > "deploy this Dockerfile to Cloud Run in us-central1"
# > "generate an image of the architecture diagram described above"

A custom local extension·text

~/.gemini/extensions/my-deploy/
├── extension.json    ← metadata
├── tools/            ← custom tool definitions
└── prompts/          ← prompt templates

# Enable in settings:
{ "extensions": { "my-deploy": { "enabled": true } } }

External links

Gemini extensions

Exercise

Install one Gemini extension that's actually useful for your work (cloud-run if you deploy to GCP, research if you do synthesis, nano-banana if you generate images). Use it on a real task. Note the difference vs assembling the same capability via raw MCP.