Gemini CLI groundcheck Prompt/ground_before_answering

How to: Gemini CLI groundcheck ground_before_answering

client:Gemini CLI transport:streamable-http prompt:ground_before_answering

Add groundcheck to Gemini CLI

01
Open ~/.gemini/settings.json and merge this in. Keep any servers already there.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "groundcheck": {
      "httpUrl": "https://groundcheck.seiche.info/mcp"
    }
  }
}

02
Save the file and restart Gemini CLI.
03
ground_before_answering is surfaced in the client's prompt or command menu. Unlike a tool, you invoke it deliberately — Gemini CLI will not call it for you.
04
If it does not appear, check that groundcheck is connected and that you are looking at its prompts rather than its tools.

Gemini expands $VAR and ${VAR} inside env values, so a secret can live in your shell rather than this file. Gemini CLI docs

Set these first

groundcheck will not start until these are set, so it never reaches Gemini CLI.

GROUNDCHECK_ENGINE_URL

Same prompt, other clients

Read from the server itself, by connecting to it and calling prompts/list on 24 September 2026. A listing does not declare its prompts, so asking is the only way to know them, and this is what the server actually offers rather than what its listing claims. Names only are stored; connect the server for each prompt's arguments.

groundcheck MCP server