gemini-delegate

name	gemini-delegate
description	Delegates large-context reading, bilingual or Chinese (CJK / 中文 / zh-TW) drafting, cross-file synthesis, and second-opinion review to Google Gemini CLI. Use when input exceeds Claude's working budget, when the user writes in Chinese, when terminology must align across long documents, or when a reviewer pass is needed. Trigger phrases include "summarize this in Chinese", "second-opinion review", "long-context synthesis", "draft this in zh-TW". Avoid for bulk code generation or security-sensitive coding.
license	MIT
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code. Portable across agentskills.io-compliant hosts; the wrapper script lives at <skill-root>/scripts/run_gemini.sh — adapt the example path to your host's skills directory (e.g. ~/.claude/skills/gemini-delegate/ on Claude Code, ~/.hermes/skills/<category>/gemini-delegate/ on Hermes).

Gemini Delegate Skill

Claude is the supervisor. Gemini drafts and synthesizes. Claude reviews terminology, facts, tone, and decides what ships.

Why use this instead of raw gemini -p

This wrapper exists because Gemini CLI has three footguns that silently break shipping tasks if you bypass it:

What the wrapper handles	What raw gemini -p "..." costs you
stdin-pipe instead of -p positional	F1 — silent failure. Gemini CLI honors .gitignore by default, so gemini -p "Read .ai/foo.md" skips the brief entirely because .ai/ is gitignored. The task appears to succeed (no error) but Gemini never read the brief.
--approval-mode yolo	Gemini blocks on file-write approvals — your task hangs waiting for a TUI prompt that never gets answered.
No -C flag	Gemini CLI does not implement -C <dir>. Passing it silently does nothing; your task runs in the wrong working directory.

Measured token savings (real dogfood, not estimates)

From a 6-round mixed-workload session (awesome-agentic-ai-zh 2026-05-14, see agent-collab-skills/docs/measured-benefits.md):

Workload	Saving vs Claude-inline	When it applies to you
Mirror sync (zh-TW → zh-Hans + en, 8 files, 250 KB content)	17-22× token reduction	Trilingual curriculum / docs / catalog work — this is the sweet spot
Long Chinese narrative draft (daily report, weekly review, ~5k characters output)	~10-17× (extrapolated from R4)	MoodRing daily / 盤後日報 / 週報 / Threads post drafts
Multi-paper synthesis (NotebookLM-style, 5-10 papers → 1 brief)	~7-17× (extrapolated)	research-hub reading list, cross-paper terminology audit
Second-opinion review (Claude wrote a draft; Gemini reads it)	~5× (extrapolated — R5's measured 5× is for the acceptance-gate subagent pattern, not direct Gemini review; the structure is analogous)	Adversarial review on academic abstracts, prompt engineering output
Code generation	1× (skill not appropriate)	Use codex-delegate instead
Security-sensitive / final acceptance	1× (skill cannot help)	Claude direct

Anti-patterns this skill prevents

• F1: gemini -p "Read .ai/foo.md" silently skips the brief because .ai/ is gitignored. Prevented by the wrapper's stdin-pipe pattern (cat .ai/foo.md | gemini --yolo -p "Execute it.").
• F13 ("liar mode"): Gemini reports task complete without actually writing output files. Prevented by the wrapper's --verify-file post-check that fails the run if the expected file is missing or unchanged.
• F14: Operator (Claude) defaults to Bash("gemini -p ...") despite the rule saying use Skill("gemini-delegate"). Prevented by a PreToolUse hook on the operator side (template below).

CLAUDE.md snippet to enforce routing

Drop this into your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (or repo-level CLAUDE.md) so the rule is operational, not aspirational:

## Gemini routing rule (enforced)

For any task that is long-context CJK / Chinese narrative, multi-paper
synthesis, second-opinion review, or terminology audit across long docs:
invoke `Skill("gemini-delegate", args="brief=...")`. Do NOT use
`Bash("gemini -p ...")` — it triggers F1 (silent skip of .ai/ brief),
F13 (liar mode without --verify-file), and approval-mode hangs.

The only safe raw pattern is the canonical stdin-pipe (note `2>&1` —
without it stderr bypasses the 10 MB cap, recreating the 7 GB log risk):
  cat .ai/gemini_task_<NNN>.md | gemini --yolo -p "Execute it." 2>&1 | head -c 10485760

Optional mechanical enforcement: a PreToolUse hook on Bash that nudges raw
`gemini -p` toward `Skill("gemini-delegate")`. Reference:
https://github.com/WenyuChiou/dotfiles-claude/blob/main/hooks/check_codex_skill_routing.py
(same hook covers codex + gemini).

→ The hook excludes the canonical stdin-pipe pattern, so legitimate raw use (cat brief.md | gemini --yolo -p "...") passes silently. Only the F1-prone gemini -p "Read .ai/..." shape triggers the nudge.

Prerequisite check (do this first)

Before producing any task file, wrapper command, or handoff prompt, verify the binary is on $PATH:

gemini --version

If that command is not found, stop and tell the user:

This skill needs the Gemini CLI. Install it with:

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
gemini --version

Then re-run your request.

Do not prepare a task prompt, write a wrapper command, or fabricate a result.json. Without the binary on PATH, every "successful" wrapper run is a hallucination.

Hard rules

These three are non-negotiable. The wrapper enforces them; if you write your own wrapper, preserve all three:

1. No -C flag. cd into the target repo before invoking gemini. Gemini CLI does not have -C.
2. Use --approval-mode yolo. Without it, Gemini blocks on file-write approvals.
3. Pipe the prompt through stdin. Passing it as a positional argument can hang the CLI.

The wrapper additionally verifies expected files when --verify-file is supplied.

When to delegate

Long-context synthesis or CJK writing → gemini · Code execution → codex · Judgment / review / final acceptance → claude.

Full routing table and examples: references/delegation-targets.md.

Workflow

1. Brief: write .ai/gemini_task_<name>.md with Context / Goal / Language & tone / Constraints / Acceptance. Template: references/task-template.md. For a drift-sensitive task (published report, bilingual mirror, long-context synthesis, second-opinion review) — where an invented fact, a slipped term, or a wrong language variant would hurt — also add the XML prompt blocks from references/gemini-prompt-blocks.md to the Goal/Language/Constraints. A tiny low-stakes draft does not need them. If the brief was queued by agent-task-splitter (from the agent-collab-skills marketplace), it lives at .ai/gemini_task_<NNN>_<slug>.md; read .coord/plan.yml for round context first.

2. Run: from Claude Code Bash, invoke the wrapper from its install location:

   bash ~/.claude/skills/gemini-delegate/scripts/run_gemini.sh \
     --prompt "Read .ai/gemini_task_<name>.md and execute all instructions inside." \
     --repo "$PWD" \
     --log-file .ai/gemini_log_<name>.txt \
     --verify-file <expected_output_path>
   

   --repo defaults to the caller's $PWD; pass --repo "$PWD" explicitly only if you want to be defensive about the working directory at invocation. On non-Claude-Code agentskills.io hosts, substitute the host's skills directory (e.g. ~/.hermes/skills/<category>/gemini-delegate/scripts/run_gemini.sh). PowerShell variant + env vars: references/wrapper.md.

3. Read status: cat .ai/gemini_log_<name>.txt.result.json.

   • success → output still needs Claude publication review.
   • verify_failed → process exited but expected files missing → treat as failure.
   • fallback → quota hit; Claude takes over.
   • error → hard failure; check <log>.error.

4. Publication review: factual accuracy, terminology consistency, dates / proper nouns, banned phrasing, audience fit. Extended checklist: references/review-checklist.md.

Output contract

.result.json includes at minimum: status (success | verify_failed | fallback | error), delegate (always "gemini"), model, log_file, summary, risks, files_changed, tests_run, timestamp_utc. Full schema and status semantics: references/output-contract.md.

Common drift to watch

Gemini may: drift terminology mid-document, over-translate proper nouns, miss project-specific banned phrases, invent dates if the brief is underspecified, switch between Simplified and Traditional Chinese mid-paragraph. Never ship its output unreviewed.

Compatibility

• Tested with @google/gemini-cli 0.38.2 (May 2026). Approval modes available: default, auto_edit, yolo, plan.
• Default model: gemini-2.5-pro (override via --model or -Model). For long-form CJK quality, prefer the latest Pro model available on your CLI.
• Approval mode: --approval-mode yolo (the wrapper uses this). -y, --yolo is the boolean alias.
• Prompt MUST be piped via stdin. The CLI accepts a positional query and -p/--prompt, but feeding via stdin is what the wrapper enforces.
• No -C flag exists; the wrapper uses pushd / Push-Location. --include-directories exists but has known path-resolution bugs and is not recommended.
• PowerShell wrapper requires $ErrorActionPreference to NOT be Stop so the YOLO banner on stderr doesn't trip the catch block.

See also

• references/delegation-targets.md — when to use vs avoid
• references/wrapper.md — full wrapper invocation, env vars, sentinels
• references/task-template.md — CJK-aware task brief template
• references/gemini-prompt-blocks.md — XML prompt blocks + recipes + anti-patterns for drift-sensitive briefs
• references/output-contract.md — full .result.json schema, status semantics, .fallback_claude quota sentinel
• references/review-checklist.md — extended publication gate
• references/multi-agent.md — leaf role in router/leaves architecture; when to route through research-hub-multi-ai or agent-task-splitter
• references/examples.md — concrete invocation examples (long-context summary, CJK report, bilingual README, second-opinion review)