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Apothem
Comparison

Apothem vs raw Gemini CLI config

Hand-maintaining Gemini CLI's GEMINI.md rules file versus rendering it from Apothem's shared profile.

Gemini CLI reads a single GEMINI.md rules file. Apothem's gemini-cli adapter renders it from the shared profile. This page contrasts hand-maintaining that config against managing it with Apothem.

Effort comparison

TaskRaw hand-configApothem-managed
Author rulesHand-edit one GEMINI.mdRendered: shared rules embedded into GEMINI.md
Keep rules aligned with other harnessesManual, per toolAutomatic on apothem update
Install / remove the configWrite and delete GEMINI.md by handapothem install / apothem uninstall
Verify the config is correctManual inspectionapothem verify --harness gemini-cli

What Apothem manages

The gemini-cli adapter embeds the shared rules into a single GEMINI.md. Gemini CLI has no PreToolUse hook, so guardrail intent is expressed in the rule prose rather than a tool-call interception point. Every change to the shared rules re-renders GEMINI.md on the next apothem update.

Migration path

  1. Run apothem profile init to create the shared profile if you have not yet.
  2. Move the rules from your existing GEMINI.md into the shared corpus.
  3. Run apothem install --harness gemini-cli to render and write GEMINI.md.
  4. Run apothem verify --harness gemini-cli to confirm the config landed.
  5. Use apothem update --harness gemini-cli for every later change.

Apothem vs raw Cursor config

Hand-maintaining Cursor's MDC rules under .cursor/rules/ versus rendering them from Apothem's shared profile.

Apothem vs raw GitHub Copilot config

Hand-maintaining GitHub Copilot's copilot-instructions.md versus rendering it from Apothem's shared profile.

On this page

Effort comparisonWhat Apothem managesMigration pathRead next