Gemini native catalog boundary — 2026-09-26

Gemini CLI 0.58.0 on Linux x64 has an official ACP model inventory, but its subscription startup does not provide the noninteractive, metadata-only failure behavior required by AgenticDriver discovery. The SDK retains CLI_STATUS_UNKNOWN and an explicitly incomplete configured inventory. No subscription credential is copied or converted to an API connection.

The official ACP interface uses stdio JSON-RPC. The installed implementation returns models.availableModels from session/new, after authentication and session initialization. The fixture sent only initialize and session/new; it never sent session/prompt, an authentication request, a command or a tool response.

In an isolated process with a synthetic API credential, that interface reported six IDs, including the native auto alias. This proves the protocol shape only. It does not establish a real account's inventory, entitlement, selected model, pricing or successful generation. The SDK does not select the alias or copy this fixture's list into a production catalog.

The same executable with an empty OAuth account directory entered manual authorization before receiving any protocol input. NO_BROWSER=1 prevented browser launch but still produced an authorization-code prompt. Source inspection confirmed that ACP is considered interactive and startup authentication precedes the ACP dispatcher. A queued protocol request could consequently become input to that login dialog. A discovery timeout would only stop the resulting flow; it would not make starting it an acceptable read-only check. This is distinct from the previously observed Google rejection of the selected personal route.

The reproducible fixture hides the real home and system configuration, disables external networking, supplies no real credentials, and seeds ambient hooks/MCP launch markers. Its temporary policy disables tools, hooks, extensions, agents, skills, automatic memory and the local Gemma router. Neither marker ran. The missing-login case sends zero stdin bytes and terminates as soon as the native authorization UI is detected. These temporary controls do not modify the user's installation or account configuration.

npm run test:gemini-catalog-native -- \
  --package /absolute/path/to/node_modules/@google/gemini-cli \
  --receipt /private/path/gemini-catalog.json

The command requires Linux and Bubblewrap and is pinned to 0.58.0. It reports passed: true when it reproduces both observations, alongside subscriptionCatalogProbeQualified: false. A passing fixture is therefore evidence of the limitation, not SDK activation or account certification. Its watchdog bounds test infrastructure only. Native JavaScript bundle identity: SHA-256 2ad8c592e8296435c8eb82f884aa59169e820d5434607f98cb72f4aae32bbf92, computed over 72 sorted bundle filenames and their individual SHA-256 digests.

Gemini certification issue #23 owns the remaining supported account route and metadata qualification. Enable the native probe only after an official fail-without-login interface, or another qualified metadata interface, avoids this interactive startup. It must keep account isolation, bounded replies, refresh cancellation separate from active runs, and no model/account/billing fallback. API-mode Gemini already has a separate supported model-list endpoint; it is not a fallback for this connection.