For personal free, Google AI Pro, and Ultra accounts, the main explanation is not usually a broken installation. Google confirmed that these personal account paths moved from Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026. The safest first action is to check the account category and migration status before uninstalling anything.

Read the official Gemini CLI transition notice and compare it with the official transition announcement. These are the sources to use for eligibility, not an old tutorial, a copied command, or a comment saying that every login error means the same thing.

Why can Gemini CLI sign in but still refuse requests?

A successful Google sign-in only proves that the browser or authentication flow accepted your account. It does not prove that the account is still eligible for the old Gemini CLI service. Treat these as separate checks:

• Personal free, Google AI Pro, or Ultra account: follow the Antigravity CLI migration path.
• Enterprise authorization: check the organization’s current authorization and service policy before changing tools.
• API key authentication: verify whether that key and account remain eligible under the current official documentation.
• Ordinary connection failure: only after account eligibility is confirmed should you investigate network access, local credentials, or a damaged installation.

This distinction prevents a common beginner mistake: repeating an install command several times when the account route itself has changed.

A classroom example makes the difference clear. Reinstalling the old tool is like replacing a classroom door when your student card is no longer accepted for that room. The door may work perfectly. Your access route has changed.

Do not treat community reports as proof of a universal shutdown. They can help you notice a pattern, but account qualification, supported authentication, and installation instructions must come from the official sources above.

Your project folder and your command-line AI tool are separate things. Moving from one assistant to another does not normally mean deleting the code directory. However, unsaved edits, local configuration, session notes, ignored files, and credentials may not move with the tool.

Think of your project as a workbook and the AI assistant as a teaching aide. Changing the aide does not erase the workbook. The aide’s private notes may not be inside the workbook, though.

Before leaving Gemini CLI, complete this short inventory:

1. Open the exact project directory you have been using.
2. List the important files, including hidden configuration files if your project uses them.
3. Check your version-control status if the project uses Git.
4. Review every uncommitted change and save anything that exists only in an editor buffer.
5. Copy the project to a separate backup location that you can restore.
6. Record important run commands, environment variables, extensions, and task notes without copying secret values.

The most important item is the difference review. An AI tool may have edited several files while you were focused on the conversation. Inspect the changes before migration. A project that still opens is not necessarily a project that is unchanged.

Will migrating from Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI delete the project?

The tool change and the project change are different operations. Your code should remain where you saved it, but you must separately protect uncommitted edits, tool-specific settings, command history, and session context. Do not assume that a previous chat transcript or assistant-specific configuration will appear automatically in the new tool.

For a beginner, use a disposable practice copy first. Keep the original course project untouched. This gives you a safe comparison:

• The original folder shows what you started with.
• The practice copy shows what the new tool wants to read or change.
• The difference view shows whether the requested edit matches your assignment.
• A restore copy gives you a way back if the first attempt behaves unexpectedly.

This is also where a remote Mac changes your workflow. If the project lives on the remote Mac, back it up and inspect it there. A copy on your Windows computer is not automatically the same copy as the directory on the remote machine.

Install Antigravity CLI on the computer that actually stores and runs the project. If your Xcode project, Python environment, or local web application is on a remote Mac, perform the installation and launch process on that remote Mac. Installing the tool only on your Windows laptop will not give it access to the files or macOS tools on the other machine.

Use the current Antigravity CLI Codelab and official Antigravity documentation as the installation source. Do not copy an old command from a video if the current documentation shows a different authentication or package route. Version numbers, supported systems, sign-in behavior, and command names can change.

Follow this order:

1. Confirm the working computer. Decide whether the project is local, on a remote Mac, or in another approved environment.
2. Prepare a disposable directory. Use a small practice project that contains no private keys, certificates, client data, or graded source code.
3. Follow the current official installation route. Use the documentation for your operating system and account type. Avoid unofficial installers and copied login workarounds.
4. Check the command path. Confirm that the shell can find the installed executable from the same account that will use the project.
5. Check the version output. Record the output for your own troubleshooting, but do not assume an old version shown in a tutorial is still valid.
6. Start the authentication flow. Complete the official account verification in the environment where the tool will run.
7. Open the practice directory. Do not begin with your formal assignment or a directory containing secrets.
8. Read the result before editing. Confirm that the tool can see the expected files and does not report a different working directory.

Where should a remote Mac install Antigravity CLI?

If the code is saved and executed on the remote Mac, install and launch Antigravity CLI on that Mac. Your local Windows computer can remain the screen and keyboard used to connect, but it should not be treated as the project’s execution environment.

This separation matters for Xcode. A local Windows terminal cannot replace the macOS environment needed to inspect an Xcode project, invoke Xcode tooling, or run a macOS simulator. You may edit text locally, but the final macOS-specific validation must occur on the Mac that contains the project and its development tools.

If a school computer blocks software installation, do not try to bypass its administrator controls. Use a personal computer, an approved remote environment, or a browser-based learning route allowed by the school. A permission workaround can create a separate account, security, or academic-policy problem.

Students who need a controlled Mac environment can review the available KVMNODE remote Mac options. The relevant question is not simply whether the tool can be installed. It is whether you can legally access the machine, keep the project in a known location, and repeat the same build and review process.

Antigravity CLI may present several types of confirmation. They do not all mean the same thing.

• Account verification answers: “Who is signing in?”
• Workspace trust answers: “Do you trust this project directory enough to let the tool work with it?”
• Command execution approval answers: “May the tool run this particular action on the computer?”
• File modification approval answers: “May the tool change these files?”
• Secret access concerns keys, certificates, tokens, and environment variables that should not be exposed to an assistant or uploaded to a service.

Use a classroom analogy. Account verification is your student card. Workspace trust is entering a classroom. Command approval is allowing someone to use equipment inside it. Having a valid student card does not mean every action should be approved automatically.

Start with the lowest-risk path:

• Use a practice folder.
• Keep secrets outside the first test.
• Review the proposed file changes.
• Approve only commands you understand.
• Reject requests to share passwords, API keys, signing certificates, or private tokens.
• Stop if the tool tries to access a directory unrelated to the task.
• Stop if the working directory is not the one you selected.

Do not share an account with classmates. Shared credentials make it difficult to identify who changed a file and can expose private coursework or billing access.

The official Antigravity documentation should be the authority for current permission behavior. If the interface presents a new approval label, read its explanation rather than treating every confirmation as harmless.

Use these conditions after the practice test. They separate a genuine migration from a rushed replacement.

• If your personal account is covered by the June 18 transition, choose migration. Reinstalling Gemini CLI is unlikely to restore the old personal route.
• If you have enterprise authorization or an eligible API key, verify qualification first. Keep Gemini CLI temporarily if the official account documentation confirms that your route remains supported.
• If the project is incomplete or has uncommitted edits, stop the tool switch. Save, back up, and inspect differences before continuing.
• If Antigravity CLI cannot start or cannot identify the correct directory, stop the migration. Fix the environment before opening real coursework.
• If permissions are unclear, use the practice copy only. Do not approve broad access to a formal assignment or a folder containing secrets.
• If the course deadline is close, use a short dual-track period. Test the new tool on a small copy before retiring the old workflow.
• If the tool works but the assignment does not build, do not count the migration as complete. For an Xcode project, build it and run the relevant simulator or device check on macOS.

Your final decision should use five results:

For Python or front-end learning, a successful file read and a small practice change may be enough for the first check. For iOS learning, it is not enough for the assistant to report that a task is complete. Open the project in the macOS environment, build it with Xcode, and verify the simulator or device result.

A practical transition record should include the date, account category, working computer, project copy used, installation result, login result, file-difference review, and course-task result. This record makes it easier to explain a failure to a teacher or to repeat the setup later.

Do not migrate solely because a tutorial says you should. First identify your account route. If the official documentation confirms that your enterprise authorization or API authentication remains eligible, you may keep Gemini CLI for a short period while testing Antigravity CLI separately.

That does not mean copying every old command blindly. Tool-specific options, session behavior, extensions, permissions, and project instructions may differ. Recreate the workflow one small task at a time.

For a student, the lowest-risk sequence is:

1. Preserve the original project.
2. Test the replacement in a copy.
3. Compare the files before and after.
4. Run the normal project check.
5. Repeat the test on the real course workflow only after the copy succeeds.
6. Remove the old route only when the new route is reliable for your assignment.

If you use a remote Mac, keep the project location and tool location consistent. A Windows screen can be useful for remote access, but it does not remove the need to verify the actual macOS environment where Xcode, certificates, simulators, and build tools operate.

If your current setup is a patchwork of school restrictions, local Windows editing, and a remote Mac for final testing, document which machine performs each task. When that arrangement becomes difficult to repeat, a remote Mac deployment and project setup can provide a more controlled place to test the workflow. Choose it for a temporary learning or validation need, not as a promise that every long-running workload belongs on a rental machine.

Your current Windows-plus-Gemini setup may be convenient, but it now has real weaknesses: the personal account route may no longer accept requests, macOS-only checks still cannot run locally, and project files can become split between machines. A remote Mac does not remove the need for backups or permission review, but it puts the AI tool, project directory, and Xcode validation in the same macOS environment. If you only need a short-lived practice or migration test, renting a Mac through KVMNODE can be more sensible than buying hardware before you know whether the workflow fits your course.

Start with one disposable course example. Confirm the five results above. Then decide whether to migrate fully, keep an eligible Gemini CLI route temporarily, or use both until your next assignment has passed its build and review checks.