System Instructions REST
quickstartsrestgemini-cookbookgemini-apigemini
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Copyright 2025 Google LLC.
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This notebook provides a quick code example that shows you how to get started with system instructions using curl.
You can run this in Google Colab, or you can copy/paste the curl commands into your terminal.
To run this notebook, your API key must be stored it in a Colab Secret named GOOGLE_API_KEY. If you are running in a different environment, you can store your key in an environment variable. See Authentication to learn more.
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Use system instructions
Call the generateContent method with the system_instruction field set:
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MODEL_ID
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{
"candidates": [
{
"content": {
"parts": [
{
"text": "Meow 😺 \n"
}
],
"role": "model"
},
"finishReason": "STOP",
"index": 0,
"safetyRatings": [
{
"category": "HARM_CATEGORY_SEXUALLY_EXPLICIT",
"probability": "NEGLIGIBLE"
},
{
"category": "HARM_CATEGORY_HATE_SPEECH",
"probability": "NEGLIGIBLE"
},
{
"category": "HARM_CATEGORY_HARASSMENT",
"probability": "NEGLIGIBLE"
},
{
"category": "HARM_CATEGORY_DANGEROUS_CONTENT",
"probability": "NEGLIGIBLE"
}
]
}
]
}
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
100 167 0 0 100 167 0 138 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 138
100 877 0 710 100 167 585 137 0:00:01 0:00:01 --:--:-- 724
Use system instructions with chat
system_instruction works for multi-turn, or chat, generations too.
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"candidates": [
{
"content": {
"parts": [
{
"text": "Neko! Neko is my name! 😸 I like milkies! 🥛 \n"
}
],
"role": "model"
},
"finishReason": "STOP",