BigQuery Data Analytics Skills

Note

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.

Important

We Want Your Feedback! Please share your thoughts with us by filling out our feedback form. Your input is invaluable and helps us improve the project for everyone.

Table of Contents

• Why Use the BigQuery Data Analytics Extension?
• Prerequisites
• Getting Started
  • Gemini CLI
  • Claude Code
  • Codex
  • Antigravity
• Usage Examples
• Supported Skills
• Additional Extensions
• Troubleshooting

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 skills.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

• One of these AI agents installed
  • Gemini CLI version v0.6.0 or higher
  • Claude Code version v2.1.94 or higher
  • Codex v0.117.0 or higher
  • Antigravity v1.14.2 or higher
• 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

Configuration

Please keep these env vars handy during the installation process:

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

Note

• Ensure Application Default Credentials are available in your environment.

Installation & Usage

To start interacting with your database, install the skills for your preferred AI agent, then launch the agent and use natural language to ask questions or perform tasks.

For the latest version, check the releases page.

Gemini CLI

1. Install the extension:

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

During the installation, enter your environment vars as described in the configuration section.

2. (Optional) Manage Configuration: To view or update your configuration in Gemini CLI:

• Terminal: gemini extensions config bigquery-data-analytics [setting name] [--scope <scope>]
• Gemini CLI: /extensions list

3. Start the agent:

gemini

(Tip: Run /extensions list to verify your configuration and active extensions.)

[!WARNING] Changing Instance & Database Connections Currently, the database connection must be configured before starting the agent and can not be changed during a session. To save and resume conversation history in Gemini CLI use command: /chat save <tag> and /chat resume <tag>.

Claude Code

1. Set env vars: In your terminal, set your environment vars as described in the configuration section.

2. Start the agent:

claude

3. Add the marketplace:

/plugin marketplace add https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/bigquery-data-analytics.git#0.1.7

4. Install the plugin:

/plugin install bigquery-data-analytics@bigquery-data-analytics-marketplace

(Tip: Run /plugin list inside Claude Code to verify the plugin is active, or /reload-plugins if you just installed it.)

Codex

1. Clone the Repo:

git clone --branch 0.1.7 git@github.com:gemini-cli-extensions/bigquery-data-analytics.git

2. Install the plugin:

mkdir -p ~/.codex/plugins
cp -R /absolute/path/to/bigquery-data-analytics ~/.codex/plugins/bigquery-data-analytics

3. Set env vars: Enter your environment vars as described in the configuration section.

4. Create or update marketplace.json: ~/.agents/plugins/marketplace.json

{
  "name": "my-data-cloud-google-marketplace",
  "interface": {
    "displayName": "Google Data Cloud Skills"
  },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "bigquery-data-analytics",
      "source": {
        "source": "local",
        "path": "./plugins/bigquery-data-analytics"
      },
      "policy": {
        "installation": "AVAILABLE",
        "authentication": "ON_INSTALL"
      },
      "category": "Database"
    }
  ]
}

(Tip: Run codex plugin list or use the /plugins interactive menu to verify your installed plugins.)

Antigravity

1. Clone the Repo:

git clone --branch 0.1.7 https://github.com/gemini-cli-extensions/bigquery-data-analytics.git

2. Install the skills:

Choose a location for the skills:

• Global (all workspaces): ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/
• Workspace-specific: <workspace-root>/.agents/skills/

Copy the skill folders from the cloned repository's skills/ directory to your chosen location:

cp -R bigquery-data-analytics/skills/* ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/

3. Set env vars: Set your environment vars as described in the configuration section.

(Tip: Antigravity automatically discovers skills in these directories at the start of a session.)

Note

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

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 Skills

This extension provides a comprehensive set of skills:

• bigquery-data: Use these skills when you need to handle large-scale data exploration and dataset management. Use when users need to find data assets or run SQL at scale. Provides metadata discovery and query execution across the data warehouse.
• bigquery-analytics: Use these skills when you need to handle advanced data intelligence and predictive tasks. Use when a user asks "why" data changed or needs future projections. Provides automated insight generation and time-series forecasting.

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.