GSoC 2026: Interactive Progress Visualization & Task Stepping — Interest and Questions

[KumarADITHYA123]

Hi, I'm kumar Aditya, a Computer Science student exploring the Gemini CLI codebase for GSoC 2026.

I'm interested in the Interactive Progress Visualization & Task Stepping idea from the GSoC 2026 ideas list.. While working on a config loading optimization (issue #19661, Draft PR #19667), I spent time tracing how tool calls flow through the agent execution pipeline. That got me thinking about how the current Ink rendering could be extended to expose more of the agent's internal decision-making to users.

I have a few questions about the intended scope:

1. Task tree depth : Should the visualization show only top-level tool calls, or recurse into nested agent decisions (e.g., when a tool triggers sub-steps)?

2. Step-through granularity : For the "step-through" mode — should approval be per-tool-call, per-agent-decision, or configurable?

3. DevTools integration : The DevTools package already captures network/console activity via WebSocket. Should this visualization live alongside DevTools or be a standalone in-CLI experience?

4. Verbosity levels : Should these be a runtime toggle or a settings-based configuration?

I've been reading through the tool call rendering flow and the Ink component structure in packages/cli/src/ui/components and packages/cli/src/ui/hooks (particularly useToolScheduler and the ToolCallRecord types). I'm planning to sketch out a small prototype of the task tree component as a starting contribution to validate the approach.

cc: @jacob314

[Roshan-anand]

@KumarADITHYA123 i had a query related to setting up geminiCLI in sandbox mode

[KumarADITHYA123]

Hey @Roshan-anand! For sandbox mode setup, you can check the docs in the README or run gemini --help to see the sandbox-related flags. If you're hitting a specific error, feel free to share it here and I'll try and help.

[Poseidon-18]

Hi, I'm Tanmay, a first-year engineering student. I'm interested in the idea: Network Traffic Proxy and Domain Filtering
and have experience in Python/Java. and I am looking for a beginner-friendly issue to start with.