Quick Start

Get up and running with Genkit in under a minute. Choose your preferred language and follow the steps below.

JavaScript/TypeScript
Go
Python

Prerequisites

Node.js 20 or higher
npm or yarn

Installation

Install Genkit and Google AI plugin

npm install genkit @genkit-ai/google-genai

Install the Genkit CLI

npm install -g genkit-cli

Get an API key

Get a Google AI API key from Google AI Studio.Set it as an environment variable:

export GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Your First Genkit App

Create a file called index.ts (or index.js):

index.ts

import { genkit } from 'genkit';
import { googleAI } from '@genkit-ai/google-genai';

const ai = genkit({ plugins: [googleAI()] });

const { text } = await ai.generate({
    model: googleAI.model('gemini-2.5-flash'),
    prompt: 'Why is Firebase awesome?'
});

console.log(text);

Run Your App

npx tsx index.ts

You should see the AI-generated response printed to your console!

Launch the Developer UI

The Genkit Developer UI helps you test and debug your AI flows:

genkit start -- npx tsx index.ts

Open your browser to the URL shown in the terminal (usually http://localhost:4000) to access the Developer UI.

Next Steps

Build Your First Flow

Learn how to create deployable AI workflows

Add Tool Calling

Enable your AI to use external functions and APIs

Structured Output

Generate type-safe JSON responses

Deploy to Production

Ship your AI features to Cloud Run, Firebase, or anywhere

Prerequisites

Go 1.23 or higher

Installation

Initialize your Go module

mkdir genkit-app
cd genkit-app
go mod init example/genkit-app

Install Genkit for Go

go get github.com/firebase/genkit/go

Install the Genkit CLI

curl -sL cli.genkit.dev | bash

Get an API key

Get a Google AI API key from Google AI Studio.Set it as an environment variable:

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Your First Genkit App

Create a file called main.go:

main.go

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"

    "github.com/firebase/genkit/go/ai"
    "github.com/firebase/genkit/go/genkit"
    "github.com/firebase/genkit/go/plugins/googlegenai"
)

func main() {
    ctx := context.Background()
    g := genkit.Init(ctx, genkit.WithPlugins(&googlegenai.GoogleAI{}))

    answer, err := genkit.GenerateText(ctx, g,
        ai.WithModelName("googleai/gemini-2.5-flash"),
        ai.WithPrompt("Why is Go a great language for AI applications?"),
    )
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("could not generate: %s", err)
    }
    fmt.Println(answer)
}

Run Your App

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key"
go run main.go

You should see the AI-generated response printed to your console!

Launch the Developer UI

The Genkit Developer UI helps you test and debug your AI flows:

genkit start -- go run main.go

Open your browser to the URL shown in the terminal (usually http://localhost:4000) to access the Developer UI.

Next Steps

Define Flows

Create deployable AI workflows with tracing

Add Tools

Give your AI the ability to call functions

Structured Data

Generate type-safe Go structs from AI models

HTTP Endpoints

Expose flows as HTTP endpoints

The Python SDK is currently in Alpha. APIs may change, and some features are still under development.

Prerequisites

Python 3.10 or higher
uv package manager (recommended)

Installation

Install uv package manager

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Create a new project

mkdir genkit-app
cd genkit-app
uv init

Install Genkit and Google GenAI plugin

uv add genkit genkit-google-genai

Get an API key

Get a Google AI API key from Google AI Studio.Set it as an environment variable:

export GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key"

Your First Genkit App

Create a file called main.py:

main.py

from genkit import Genkit
from genkit.plugins.google_genai import GoogleGenAI, gemini_2_0_flash

ai = Genkit(
    plugins=[GoogleGenAI()],
    model=gemini_2_0_flash,
)

response = await ai.generate(prompt="Tell me a joke")
print(response.text)

Run Your App

export GOOGLE_GENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key"
uv run python main.py

You should see the AI-generated response printed to your console!

Launch the Developer UI

The Genkit Developer UI helps you test and debug your AI flows:

genkit start -- uv run python main.py

Install the Genkit CLI first: curl -sL cli.genkit.dev | bash

Open your browser to the URL shown in the terminal (usually http://localhost:4000) to access the Developer UI.

Next Steps

Define Flows

Create deployable AI workflows with full tracing

Tool Calling

Build agents that can call external functions

Structured Output

Generate Pydantic models from AI responses

Deploy with Flask

Expose flows as HTTP endpoints

Common Next Steps

Regardless of which language you chose, here are some common next steps:

Explore Model Providers

Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, and more

Learn Core Concepts

Understand flows, tools, prompts, and the Genkit architecture

Try Examples

Explore interactive examples and sample applications

Join the Community

Get help and share ideas with other developers

Need Help?

If you run into any issues:

Overview

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Guides

Model Providers

Deployment

Developer Tools

​Quick Start

​Prerequisites

​Installation

​Your First Genkit App

​Run Your App

​Launch the Developer UI

​Next Steps

Build Your First Flow

Add Tool Calling

Structured Output

Deploy to Production

​Prerequisites

​Installation

​Your First Genkit App

​Run Your App

​Launch the Developer UI

​Next Steps

Define Flows

Add Tools

Structured Data

HTTP Endpoints

​Prerequisites

​Installation

​Your First Genkit App

​Run Your App

​Launch the Developer UI

​Next Steps

Define Flows

Tool Calling

Structured Output

Deploy with Flask

​Common Next Steps

Explore Model Providers

Learn Core Concepts

Try Examples

Join the Community

​Need Help?

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Quick Start

Prerequisites

Installation

Your First Genkit App

Run Your App

Launch the Developer UI

Next Steps

Prerequisites

Installation

Your First Genkit App

Run Your App

Launch the Developer UI

Next Steps

Prerequisites

Installation

Your First Genkit App

Run Your App

Launch the Developer UI

Next Steps

Common Next Steps

Need Help?