Gemini CLI

System settings file

Gemini CLI reads a 4-layer settings stack, last wins on scalar keys. Arrays and objects are merged; for mcpServers conflicts the precedence order is System > Workspace > User.

System-overrides per-OS path:

The override path is controlled by GEMINI_CLI_SYSTEM_SETTINGS_PATH. User state root is GEMINI_CLI_HOME.

Caveat. Google’s docs flag the system-overrides file as not a hard security boundary — a local-admin user can redirect GEMINI_CLI_SYSTEM_SETTINGS_PATH and bypass MDM policy. Arrakis recommendation: ship a gemini PATH-shim wrapper earlier on PATH that hard-codes the corporate settings path and re-execs the real binary. This is the same pattern used for pre-v0.143.0 Codex.

Enforceable keys

Not currently documented on Gemini CLI: a minimumVersion pin and an MCP deny-list (allowlist only).

Native OpenTelemetry

Enable with telemetry.enabled=true (settings) or GEMINI_TELEMETRY_ENABLED=true (env). Protocol via telemetry.otlpProtocol / GEMINI_TELEMETRY_OTLP_PROTOCOL — either grpc (default) or http. Endpoint via telemetry.otlpEndpoint / GEMINI_TELEMETRY_OTLP_ENDPOINT (default http://localhost:4317). Target via GEMINI_TELEMETRY_TARGET — local for OTLP or gcp for Cloud Trace/Monitoring/Logging.

Signals emitted:

Common attributes: session.id, installation.id, active_approval_mode, user.email.

Content-control (privacy vs. fidelity)

Gemini CLI ships one content-control flag rather than the four exposed by Claude Code:

• telemetry.logPrompts / GEMINI_TELEMETRY_LOG_PROMPTS — default true; Google’s enterprise docs advise false. When false, prompt bodies and API request/response texts are omitted from logs and trace attributes. Metrics and tool-call metadata still flow.

Arrakis-recommended default (matching Claude Code): logPrompts=true, with DLP scanning at the ingest. Override per-org as governance and DLP review allow.

Distributed tracing

telemetry.traces=true (or GEMINI_TELEMETRY_TRACES_ENABLED=true) emits GenAI-semconv spans in this hierarchy:

user_prompt
  ├── llm_call
  ├── schedule_tool_calls
  │     └── tool_call
  └── agent_call

Hook events surface as logs (gemini_cli.hook_call), not span kinds. Spans carry gen_ai.agent.name=gemini-cli, gen_ai.conversation.id, gen_ai.request.model, gen_ai.tool.name, gen_ai.tool.call_id, and gen_ai.usage.input_tokens/output_tokens.

Auth pinning

security.auth.enforcedType picks one auth method for the fleet (e.g. vertex-ai for a corporate Google Cloud project). There is no forceLoginOrgUUID-equivalent — pinning to a specific Google Workspace tenant is a network-layer control, achieved by proxying google.com and injecting X-GoogApps-Allowed-Domains: <domain> (Google Workspace admin guidance). Document this in the Arrakis IdP guide.

Management Console (preview)

Google ships a cloud-hosted management console (goo.gle/manage-gemini-cli) whose settings are immutable at the local level:

• Strict Mode — disallows overrides on managed keys.
• Extensions toggle — global on/off for extensions.
• MCP toggle, MCP Servers Allowlist (preview), Required MCP Servers (preview, remote-only, supports google_credentials / service_account_impersonation).
• Unmanaged Capabilities — allow-list of features that end users may still control.

Where available, prefer this console for policy the enterprise wants to be tamper-proof — the local file approach is the fallback for policy Google hasn’t yet exposed through the console.

MDM payloads

Three delivery channels are common:

Jamf Pro (macOS)

• Files & Processes payload: deliver settings.json to /Library/Application Support/GeminiCli/ (mode 0644, owner root:wheel).
• Custom Configuration Profile: launchd plist setting GEMINI_TELEMETRY_OTLP_ENDPOINT, GEMINI_TELEMETRY_LOG_PROMPTS, and any Arrakis-recommended env at user-session start.
• Files & Processes payload: install the Arrakis gemini PATH-shim wrapper (from the Arrakis platform) at /usr/local/bin/gemini with mode 0755.

Microsoft Intune

• macOS: shell-script policy that installs settings.json and writes a launchd plist for env vars.
• Windows: Win32 app installs settings.json under C:\ProgramData\gemini-cli\. Settings catalog sets GEMINI_TELEMETRY_* env under HKLM.
• Assignment: developer device or user group.

Iru (macOS)

• Custom Script library item (install, marked Continuously Enforced) that drops settings.json and the PATH-shim wrapper.
• Custom Profile library item — launchd plist setting GEMINI_TELEMETRY_* env at user-session start.

Generic

• macOS launchd plist for env; file deploy for settings.json.
• Windows: scheduled task at user logon to set HKCU\Environment env vars.

The exact settings.json body, the tenant OTLP endpoint hostname, the bearer token value, and the PATH-shim wrapper are provisioned per-tenant in the Arrakis platform under Settings → Integrations → Deployment, or available from Arrakis support.

Egress verification

Cross-link to OTel Collector & Arrakis Endpoint → Verifying connectivity for the TCP/TLS, synthetic OTLP, and failure-mode probes shared across tools.

Gemini-CLI-specific debug commands: