Nano Banana images with Gemini CLI

Overview

Use Gemini CLI plus the Nano Banana extension to generate and edit images via slash commands. Outputs are saved to ./nanobanana-output/ for review or delivery.

Prerequisites

• Confirm Gemini CLI is installed: gemini --version
• Confirm the extension is installed: gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/nanobanana
• Ensure an API key is set: NANOBANANA_GEMINI_API_KEY, NANOBANANA_GOOGLE_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, or GOOGLE_API_KEY
• Optional: set NANOBANANA_MODEL=gemini-3-pro-image-preview for Nano Banana Pro
• If MCP tools are blocked by policy, run with approvals: gemini --approval-mode yolo -p "..." or allow the MCP server with --allowed-mcp-server-names nanobanana

Workflow