Augment Code vs Gemini Code Assist

Augment Code vs Gemini Code AssistComparisonUpdated 2026-03-18

SUMMARY

Augment Code (IDE) uses markdown configuration while Gemini Code Assist (IDE) uses markdown. They differ on 1 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Augment Code	Gemini Code Assist	Notes
Config format	markdown	markdown
Hierarchy support	✓	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✓	✗	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✓	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	✗
IDE integration	✓	✓
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

FILE MAPPING

Purpose	Augment Code	Gemini Code Assist
Project instructions	AGENTS.md	GEMINI.md
Project instructions	.augment-guidelines.md	AGENT.md

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Augment Code

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Project Rules

## Architecture
- Clean architecture with domain, application, and infrastructure layers
- Domain models must not import from infrastructure
- Use dependency injection for all services

## Code Style
- TypeScript strict mode, no implicit any
- Use Result<T, E> for error handling in domain layer
- Prefer composition over inheritance
- Maximum 3 parameters per function; use options objects for more

## Testing
- Unit tests for domain logic (no mocking frameworks)
- Integration tests for API endpoints
- E2E tests for critical user journeys with Playwright

## Dependencies
- Do not add new dependencies without discussing first
- Prefer standard library over third-party for simple tasks

Gemini Code Assist

GEMINI.md

markdown

# Project Rules

## Overview
E-commerce platform built with Go microservices and React frontend.
All services communicate via gRPC with Protocol Buffers.

## Go Services
- Follow standard Go project layout (cmd/, internal/, pkg/)
- Use structured logging with slog (not log or fmt.Println)
- Error handling: always wrap errors with fmt.Errorf("%w", err)
- Database access through repository pattern in internal/repo/
- All public functions must have godoc comments

## API Design
- Proto files live in proto/ directory with buf for linting
- Use field masks for partial updates
- Pagination via cursor-based tokens, not offset

## Testing
- Table-driven tests for all business logic
- Use testcontainers-go for integration tests
- Minimum 80% coverage on internal/ packages
- Mock external services with gomock interfaces

## Do Not
- Use global variables or init() functions
- Import internal packages across service boundaries
- Commit generated .pb.go files (CI generates them)

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Global config

Augment Code: Supported. Gemini Code Assist: Not supported.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Augment Code, configure AGENTS.md. If you use Gemini Code Assist, configure GEMINI.md. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md