Gemini CLI Extension - BigQuery Data Analytics

Note

This extension is currently in beta (pre-v1.0), and may see breaking changes until the first stable release (v1.0).

Developers can effortlessly connect, interact, and generate data insights with BigQuery datasets and data using natural language commands.

Learn more about Gemini CLI Extensions.

Important

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Why Use the BigQuery Data Analytics Extension?

• Natural Language to data analytics : Find required BigQuery tables and ask analytical questions in natural language.
• Seamless Workflow: Stay in your CLI. No need to constantly switch contexts to the GCP console for generating analytical insights.
• Run advanced analytics : Generate forecasts, run a contributions analysis using built-in advanced tools.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• Gemini CLI installed with version +v0.6.0.
• Setup Gemini CLI Authentication.
• A Google Cloud project with the BigQuery API enabled.
• Ensure Application Default Credentials are available in your environment.
• IAM Permissions:
  • BigQuery User (roles/bigquery.user)

Getting Started

Installation

To install the extension, use the command:

gemini extensions install https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/bigquery-data-analytics

Configuration

You will be prompted to configure the following settings during installation. These settings are saved in an .env file within the extension's directory.

• BIGQUERY_PROJECT: The GCP project ID.
• BIGQUERY_LOCATION: (Optional) The dataset location.

To view or update your configuration:

List Settings:

• Terminal: gemini extensions list
• Gemini CLI: /extensions list

Update Settings:

• Terminal: gemini extensions config bigquery-data-analytics [setting name] [--scope <scope>]
  • setting name: (Optional) The single setting to configure.
  • scope: (Optional) The scope of the setting in (user or workspace). Defaults to user.
• Currently, you must restart the Gemini CLI for changes to take effect. We recommend using gemini --resume to resume your session.

Alternatively, you can manually set these environment variables before starting the Gemini CLI:

export BIGQUERY_PROJECT="<your-gcp-project-id>"
export BIGQUERY_LOCATION="<your-dataset-location>"  # Optional

Note

• Ensure Application Default Credentials are available in your environment.
• See Troubleshooting for debugging your configuration.

Start Gemini CLI

To start the Gemini CLI, use the following command:

gemini

Usage Examples

Interact with BigQuery using natural language right from your IDE:

• Find Data:

  • "Find tables related to PyPi downloads"
  • "Find tables related to Google analytics data in the dataset bigquery-public-data"

• Generate Analytics and insights:

  • "Using bigquery-public-data.pypi.file_downloads show me the top 10 downloaded pypi packages this month."
  • “Using bigquery-public-data.pypi.file_downloads can you forecast downloads for the last four months of 2025 for package urllib3?”

Supported Tools

This extension provides a comprehensive set of tools:

• execute_sql: Executes a SQL query.
• forecast: Forecast time series data.
• get_dataset_info: Get dataset metadata.
• get_table_info: Get table metadata.
• list_dataset_ids: Lists dataset ids in the database.
• list_table_ids: Lists table ids in the database.
• analyze_contribution: Perform contribution analysis, also called key driver analysis.
• search_catalog: Search for tables based on the provided query.

Additional Extensions

Find additional extensions to support your entire software development lifecycle at github.com/gemini-cli-extensions, including:

• BigQuery Conversational Analytics
• and more!

Troubleshooting

Use gemini --debug to enable debugging.

Common issues:

• "failed to find default credentials: google: could not find default credentials.": Ensure Application Default Credentials are available in your environment. See Set up Application Default Credentials for more information.
• "✖ Error during discovery for server: MCP error -32000: Connection closed": The database connection has not been established. Ensure your configuration is set via environment variables.
• "✖ MCP ERROR: Error: spawn /Users/USER/.gemini/extensions/bigquery-data-analytics/toolbox ENOENT": The Toolbox binary did not download correctly. Ensure you are using Gemini CLI v0.6.0+.
• "cannot execute binary file": The Toolbox binary did not download correctly. Ensure the correct binary for your OS/Architecture has been downloaded. See Installing the server for more information.