Configuration

API Key Setup

1. Visit Google AI Studio
2. Create a new API key
3. Configure using one of the methods below

Configuration Priority

The server loads your API key in this order:

1. MCP environment variables (highest priority) — set in your MCP client config
2. System environment variable — GEMINI_API_KEY
3. Config file — ~/.nano-banana-config.json (created via configure_gemini_token tool)

Claude Code

With environment variable (recommended):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nano-banana": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:fjacquet/Nano-Banana-MCP"],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Without environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nano-banana": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "github:fjacquet/Nano-Banana-MCP"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

With environment variable (recommended):

{
  "nano-banana": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["nano-banana-mcp"],
    "env": {
      "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-gemini-api-key-here"
    }
  }
}

Without environment variable:

{
  "nano-banana": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["nano-banana-mcp"]
  }
}

Other MCP Clients

System environment variable:

export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-gemini-api-key-here"
npx -y github:fjacquet/Nano-Banana-MCP

Using the configure tool:

npx -y github:fjacquet/Nano-Banana-MCP
# Then use configure_gemini_token tool to set your key
# Saves to ~/.nano-banana-config.json

Model Selection

Five models are available:

Model	ID	Use Case
Nano Banana 2.1	gemini-nano-banana-2.1	Pro quality at Flash speed — default for all tools
Nano Banana Pro	gemini-3-pro-image	Professional quality, advanced reasoning
Nano Banana 2	gemini-3.1-flash-image	Previous default
Nano Banana 2 Lite	gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image	Fastest and cheapest — 1K output only, no Google Search grounding
Nano Banana	gemini-2.5-flash-image	Legacy — shut down by Google on 2027-03-15

Pass the model parameter to any generation/editing tool to select the model.

File Storage

Images are saved to platform-appropriate locations:

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\nano-banana-images\
• macOS/Linux: ./generated_imgs/ (in current directory)
• System directories: ~/nano-banana-images/ (when run from system paths)

File naming: generated-[timestamp]-[id].png or edited-[timestamp]-[id].png