Android CLI: Build Android Apps 3x Faster with Any Agent

Google has unveiled a new set of tools for Android agentic workflow.

At its core is the Android CLI, the main interface for handling the Android SDK and development environment from the terminal.

• android sdk install: Downloads only the necessary SDK components to keep the environment lightweight
• android create: Quickly generates new projects using official templates
• android emulator / android run: Automates virtual device creation, app deployment, and execution
• android update: Easily applies the latest features and improvements

In internal experiments, LLM token usage during project and environment setup was reduced by more than 70%, and task completion speed was 3x faster compared to using standard tools alone.

Also released alongside this are Android skills, a set of markdown-based SKILL.md instructions. They help perform repetitive tasks—such as Navigation 3 setup, edge-to-edge support, AGP 9 and XML-to-Compose migration, and R8 configuration analysis—using the latest recommended approaches.

Another pillar is the Android Knowledge Base.

• Android Developer Docs
• Firebase
• Google Developers
• Kotlin docs

It searches and retrieves from these up-to-date official docs, enabling even models with outdated training cutoffs to answer based on current recommended patterns and libraries.

Overall, this announcement focuses on enabling agents to more accurately create, configure, run, and follow the latest guidance for projects even outside Android Studio. It suggests a workflow where early prototypes are built quickly with the CLI and agents, followed by UI polishing, debugging, profiling, and managing large-scale apps in Android Studio.