Gemini Basic Reasoning

Compare Gemini 2.5 Flash with thinking disabled and a 1,024-token budget, then inspect reasoning content.

Compare Gemini 2.5 Flash with thinking disabled against a fixed 1,024-token reasoning model, then inspect the captured reasoning content.

The source labels its first agent “No Reasoning,” but gemini-2.5-flash uses dynamic thinking when thinking_budget is unset. Set thinking_budget=0 on that model to disable thinking for the comparison. See Gemini thinking.

basic_reasoning.py

"""
Basic Reasoning
===============

Demonstrates this reasoning cookbook example.
"""

from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.google import Gemini
from rich.console import Console


# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Create Example
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
def run_example() -> None:
    console = Console()

    # Classic reasoning test
    task = "9.11 and 9.9 -- which is bigger? Explain your reasoning."

    # Create a regular agent (no reasoning)
    regular_agent = Agent(
        model=Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-flash"),
        markdown=True,
    )

    # Create an agent with thinking budget
    reasoning_agent = Agent(
        model=Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-flash"),
        reasoning_model=Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-flash", thinking_budget=1024),
        markdown=True,
    )

    console.rule("[bold blue]Regular Gemini Agent (No Reasoning)[/bold blue]")
    console.print("This agent will answer directly without extended thinking.\n")
    regular_agent.print_response(task, stream=True)

    console.rule("[bold green]Gemini with Thinking Budget[/bold green]")
    console.print("This agent uses thinking budget to analyze the problem.\n")
    reasoning_agent.print_response(task, stream=True, show_full_reasoning=True)

    console.rule("[bold cyan]Accessing Reasoning Content[/bold cyan]")
    response = reasoning_agent.run(task, stream=False)
    if response.reasoning_content:
        console.print(
            f"[dim]Reasoning tokens used: ~{len(response.reasoning_content.split())}[/dim]"
        )
        console.print(
            f"\n[bold]Reasoning process:[/bold]\n{response.reasoning_content[:400]}..."
        )
    else:
        console.print("[yellow]No reasoning content available[/yellow]")


# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Run Example
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
if __name__ == "__main__":
    run_example()

Run the Example

1. Set up your virtual environment

   Mac

   uv venv --python 3.12
   source .venv/bin/activate
   

   uv venv --python 3.12
   .venv\Scripts\activate
   
2. Install dependencies

   uv pip install -U agno google-genai
   
3. Export your Google API key

   Mac/Linux

   export GOOGLE_API_KEY="your_google_api_key_here"
   

   $Env:GOOGLE_API_KEY="your_google_api_key_here"
   
4. Disable thinking on the regular agent

   Replace Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-flash") in regular_agent with Gemini(id="gemini-2.5-flash", thinking_budget=0) in the saved file.

5. Run the example

   Save the code above as basic_reasoning.py, then run:

   python basic_reasoning.py
   

Full source: cookbook/10_reasoning/models/gemini/basic_reasoning.py