Google’s Jules coding agent adds CLI, API

Google Labs has introduced Jules Tools and the Jules API, a command-line interface and API respectively for the Jules coding agent.

Jules Tools and the Jules API were announced October 2. Jules Tools is a new CLI that brings Jules directly into the developer’s terminal, where they can start, stop, and verify Jules tasks next to their own commands. Google Labs said this was the simplest way to move from talking to Jules in chat to running alongside it in an actual workflow. Jules works asynchronously on tasks across the software development life cycle, including generating code, writing tests, fixing bugs, creating pull requests, and updating dependencies, according to Google Labs.

Jules API, now in an early preview mode, allows developers to integrate Jules into custom workflows, or directly into CI/CD pipelines in services like GitHub Actions, and automate tasks such as bug fixing and code reviews. The Jules API allows developers to embed Jules’s intelligence directly into tools such as Slack, Linear, Jira, and GitHub, Google Labs said.

Google Labs has made several other improvements to Jules in recent weeks. A new file selector allows developers to specify which files Jules should work with for a given task. A new memory feature enables Jules to remember preferences for repositories and automatically apply them to future tasks. Environment variables now can be specified at the repository level and made available for specific tasks. Jules also now can read and respond to comments in pull requests.