Ory Agent Extension: Gemini CLI

Ory bundled into Gemini CLI: skills and TOML slash commands that scaffold Ory authentication into your codebase, a local Ory stack you can spin up in one command, and (when pointed at an Ory project) authentication, authorization, and audit for every tool Gemini runs.

You don't need an Ory account or any prior Ory experience to start.

Prerequisites

• Gemini CLI installed and signed in
• Node.js ≥ 24 (matches the Ory plugin toolchain — nvm use 24 or volta install node@24)
• Docker (only needed for the local Ory stack)
• macOS or Linux. Windows works via WSL2.

Install

In your shell:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/ory/gemini-cli-extension

That's it — skills, TOML slash commands, hooks, and the Ory MCP server are now registered.

Alternative install paths

# Direct installer; renders a fresh extension manifest and invokes
# `gemini extensions install` for you. No prior npm install required.
npx -y @ory/gemini-cli install
npx -y @ory/gemini-cli uninstall

If the gemini binary isn't on your PATH, npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini-setup writes the extension config directly into your project's .gemini/settings.json.

Quickstart (≈ 3 minutes)

From any project where you'd like Ory authentication, inside Gemini CLI:

1. Start a local Ory instance. Ask Gemini "start the local Ory stack" or run:

   /ory:local-up
   

   A banner prints the seeded test user's email and password. Note them — you'll log in with them in step 3.

2. Scaffold Ory into your project. Ask Gemini "add Ory auth to this app" or invoke the ory-auth-setup skill.

   Gemini installs Ory Elements, wires the SDK, generates the login / registration / recovery / verification / settings pages, and sets up session middleware. It targets the local stack from step 1, so no signup or API key is needed.

3. Sign in. Start your app, visit the login page Gemini added, and sign in with the seeded credentials. You now have a real Ory session backed by a real Ory stack — locally, offline, with zero configuration.

4. Turn on Ory login for the Gemini session itself. (Optional but recommended.) Out of the box the extension only governs your app. To also attach an Ory identity to Gemini's session — so every tool call is attributed to you, not a fallback session:<id> subject — set:

   export ORY_AUTH_GATE=1

   Then restart Gemini CLI. On next session start, Gemini opens an Ory login in your browser; sign in with the same seeded credentials from step 1. This is what makes permissions enforce (see Agent security) deny on the right identity later.

That's the full Ory DX path. Stop here if you're just evaluating the extension. Continue to Agent security when you're ready to enforce.

What's included

Skills for scaffolding Ory into your application

The extension bundles five skills that Gemini auto-invokes by description. Ask Gemini in natural language or invoke a skill directly:

• ory-auth-setup — full project setup. Install the Ory CLI, create an Ory Network project (or use the local one), add Ory Elements, configure the SDK, build the auth pages, wire session middleware.
• ory-login-flow — login, registration, recovery, verification, and settings pages with Ory Elements. Next.js App Router and React SPA variants.
• ory-social-login — Google, GitHub, Apple, Microsoft, Discord, and other OIDC providers with Jsonnet data mappers.
• ory-local-dev — drive the local Ory stack from within Gemini to prototype and test without a remote project.
• ory-permissions-onboarding — bootstrap permission tuples for built-in tools, switch between observe and enforce mode, troubleshoot denials.

Ory MCP server

Bundled and registered automatically. Exposes the Ory CLI and the Ory Network REST API as MCP tools so Gemini can manage identities, OAuth2 clients, projects, permission tuples, and configuration without ever leaving the chat. Useful for seeding test data, verifying a scaffolded integration, or running one-off admin tasks.

Local Ory stack

/ory:local-up      # start a local Ory instance in Docker
/ory:local-down    # tear it all down

local-up brings up Ory Identities, OAuth2, and Permissions, plus a login UI on :3000 and Jaeger on :16686, all reachable through http://localhost:4000. A test user identity is seeded and the credentials are printed for you. Use it to:

• Learn Ory hands-on without signing up for a hosted project.
• Prototype flows (login, social, MFA, recovery, permission tuples) against a real Ory backend.
• Test an auth integration end-to-end before pushing anything to a real environment.
• Develop your application against the same identity, OAuth2, and permission surfaces you'll ship with.

Pointing at a real Ory project

The Quickstart uses the local stack. If you have a hosted Ory Network project, point the extension at it:

npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini configure \
  --project-url https://<id>.projects.oryapis.com \
  --api-key ory_pat_...

Config is saved to ~/.config/ory-agent-plugins/config.json and shared across every Ory agent plugin or extension on the machine.

Without configuration the extension still loads cleanly and runs in pass-through mode: skills and commands work, but nothing is blocked. You can stay in pass-through mode indefinitely if you only want the DX features.

Agent security

Once the extension is pointed at an Ory project (local or hosted), Gemini's session and every tool call can be governed by Ory.

• Authentication. Two identities. The human at the keyboard (the user) authenticates interactively via Ory Identities when ORY_AUTH_GATE=1 is set. The Gemini process (the agent) gets its own OAuth2 identity, self-registered via Dynamic Client Registration (RFC 7591) on first run.
• Authorization. Before any tool runs, the extension checks Ory Permissions (Zanzibar-style relation tuples) against the user's subject and blocks the call on deny. MCP tool calls additionally get a server-level check.
• Audit. Every decision (allow, deny, fallback) is recorded as a structured trace span: NDJSON file output and/or OTLP/HTTP export to Jaeger, Honeycomb, Grafana, and similar collectors. The user → agent delegation is written to Ory as a relation tuple so "agent X acting on behalf of user Y" stays queryable after tokens expire.

The extension is fail-open on its own infrastructure failures (network errors, rate limits, missing config), so enforcement is only as strong as your tuples — grant explicit invoke relations for the tools each user should be able to run.

Enable enforcement

After install the extension runs in observe mode: every tool call is checked against Ory Permissions, but a deny is recorded as a permission.observe_deny audit span and the tool runs anyway. This lets you see what would be blocked before turning on hard blocking.

1. Turn on the user gate. In your shell:

   export ORY_AUTH_GATE=1

   The next Gemini session opens a browser for PKCE login. Subsequent sessions reuse the persisted token until it expires.

2. Bootstrap tuples for the built-in tools. One idempotent command grants the current user use on every tool Gemini ships with (read_file, write_file, shell, …):

   npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini permissions bootstrap

   If a user identity is already cached at install time, the installer runs this for you automatically — re-run after adding tools, switching subjects, or changing the namespace.

3. Check coverage. permissions status probes every tool in the harness's catalog and prints allowed / denied per tool:

   npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini permissions status

   Add tuples for any MCP server tools or custom commands by hand, or via the Ory MCP server from inside Gemini ("grant me use on the shell tool").

4. Promote to enforce. Once the observe-mode logs look right, switch over:

   npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini permissions enforce

   Denies now block the tool call; Gemini shows the denial reason and the decision is recorded as a tool.block trace span with blocked: true. Switch back any time with permissions observe.

CLI reference

npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini install                             [--link]
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini uninstall
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini configure                           [--project-url <url>] [--api-key <key>] [--audit-only]
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini agent <status|unregister>           Manage the agent's OAuth2 identity
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini permissions <status|bootstrap|observe|enforce>
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini local <up|down|status|seed|logs|env|configure|reset>
npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini status

Highlights:

• agent status — show the current persisted DCR identity for the agent.
• permissions observe / permissions enforce — switch between "log denies, allow through" (the install default) and "block denies." permissions bootstrap writes use tuples for the harness's built-in tools so the promotion path doesn't require hand-writing relationships.
• configure --audit-only — kill switch that disables Ory entirely (no auth, no permission checks; only audit logging of tool invocations). For phased rollouts, prefer permissions observe over --audit-only.
• local seed / local env — reseed the test user, or print env vars for pointing other tools at the local stack.

Troubleshooting

• /ory:local-up fails. Make sure Docker is running and ports 3000, 4000, 4100, and 16686 are free.
• PKCE login loops. Clear persisted state with npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli ory-gemini agent unregister and retry.
• npx fetches an old version. Force a fresh fetch: npx -y -p @ory/gemini-cli@latest ory-gemini ….
• Need more signal. Set ORY_AGENT_DEBUG=true and ORY_AGENT_LOG_FILE=/tmp/ory.log to capture structured logs.

Links

• Ory documentation
• Ory Network console
• Ory Elements
• Gemini CLI documentation

License

Apache-2.0