2026-05-04
Google Jules public beta — async coding agent goes global with CLI and GitHub Action
Jules (Gemini 3 Pro) is now global public beta with a GitHub label Action and Jules Tools CLI — the first async GitHub-native coding agent rival to Claude Code.
Google’s Jules coding agent is now in public beta globally, powered by Gemini 3 Pro. Jules operates asynchronously in a cloud VM — you assign it a GitHub issue (by adding a jules label), it reads the repo, plans the changes, shows you the plan for approval, then opens a PR. New this week: Jules Tools CLI (jules command) for terminal-native invocation without going through the GitHub UI.
Jules integrates natively via a GitHub Action (google-labs-code/jules-action). For Gemini Enterprise customers, Jules is included at no additional per-seat cost. Jules represents the first serious async GitHub-native competitor to Claude Code and Devin at scale.
Practitioner note
The label-triggered GitHub workflow is genuinely low friction to trial — drop the Action into any repo and test on a well-scoped issue. Skip if you’re already deeply integrated with Claude Code; the switching cost exceeds the marginal benefit for most solo/small-team workflows. Watch May 19 — Google I/O will almost certainly include a major Jules capability announcement. The three-horse coding-agent race (Claude Code, Jules, Devin) is now fully public.