There is a growing demand in the google/gemini-cli issues for local model support. The reality? The functionality is already there.

The @google/gemini-cli-core SDK was architected as a modular orchestrator, not just a cloud wrapper. At Tars , we’ve tapped into the SDK’s native ContentGenerator interface and OverrideStrategy to run 100% local agentic loops without forking the core.

1. The Strategy: Bypassing the Cloud Router

The Gemini SDK uses a ClassifierStrategy by default to ping Google’s flash-lite for prompt routing. This is what causes "API Key Missing" errors when trying to run locally.

We bypass this natively by exploiting the SDK's internal routing priority:

FallbackStrategy

OverrideStrategy (Triggered when a concrete model is provided)

ClassifierStrategy (The default cloud ping)

By simply passing a specific model name (e.g., qwen-3b ) instead of auto during initialization, we trip the OverrideStrategy .…