Using Aider with Gemini Flash and the Gemini API

3 min readJul 25, 2024

Introduction to Aider

Aider is an AI-powered coding assistant that integrates with various language models to help developers write, edit, and manage code. It’s designed to work seamlessly with Git repositories and can be used directly from the command line.

Key features of Aider:

Integrates with multiple AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT models and Google’s Gemini models
Works with Git repositories
Supports whole-file edits
Offers a chat-like interface for interacting with the AI

To see an awesome demonstration of how to use Aider checkout this YouTube video

Source: https://aider.chat/docs/llms/gemini.html

Setting up Aider with Gemini Flash

To use Aider with Gemini Flash, follow these steps:

Install Aider:

pip install aider

2. Set up your Gemini API key:

Create a .env file in your project directory
Add your Gemini API key to the file:

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

source to get Gemini API Key: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/api-key

3. Run Aider with Gemini Flash:

aider --model gemini/gemini-1.5-flash-latest

This command loads the .env file, sets up Aider with the Gemini 1.5 Flash model, and starts an interactive session.

Using Aider

Once Aider is running, you can interact with it using natural language commands. Some useful commands include:

/help: Get help on available commands
/add <filename>: Add a file to the current conversation
/diff: Show the current changes
/commit: Commit the current changes to Git

You can ask Aider to perform various coding tasks, such as writing new functions, fixing bugs, or explaining code.

Using the Gemini API in a Python Script

To use the Gemini API directly in a Python script, you can follow this example:

import google.generativeai as genai
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os# Load environment variables
load_dotenv()# Fetch the API key from environment variables
GEMINI_API_KEY = os.getenv("GEMINI_API_KEY")
if GEMINI_API_KEY is None:
    raise ValueError("GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable is not set")# Configure the Gemini API
genai.configure(api_key=GEMINI_API_KEY)# Create a generative model instance
model = genai.GenerativeModel('gemini-1.5-flash')# Generate content
response = model.generate_content("Give me python code to sort a list")# Check if the response contains valid content
if response.parts:
    print(response.text)
else:
    # Handle cases where no valid content is returned
    if response.candidate.safety_ratings:
        print("Content generation was blocked due to safety filters.")
        print(response.candidate.safety_ratings)
    else:
        print("No valid content was generated.")

This script demonstrates how to:

Load the API key from a .env file
Configure the Gemini API
Create a generative model instance
Generate content using the model
Handle the response, including potential safety filters

Conclusion

Aider provides a powerful way to integrate AI assistance into your coding workflow, and its support for Gemini Flash offers a fast and capable option for code generation and editing. By combining Aider’s interactive capabilities with direct use of the Gemini API in your scripts, you can leverage AI throughout your development process.

Remember to keep your API key secure and never share it publicly. Always review and test AI-generated code before using it in production environments.