Can Gemini hear this file?

Most coding agents read text well. Few of them can listen. When a Codex conversation needed to know what an audio file said, the answer had to come from another model.

Gemini models accept audio natively. The open question was narrower. Does that ability survive the trip through a command-line agent, launched from another agent’s conversation? We ran the smallest useful check on September 10, 2026.

The setup

Ennodia doesn’t upload media. It starts the selected agent with a text prompt that names a local file and a range.¹ The worker then has to open the file with its own tools.

For Antigravity, that matters. Its documented headless input accepts text blocks and rejects media blocks.² Any listening has to happen through the agent’s native file tool, view_file.

The primary agent chose the harness and model explicitly: Antigravity 1.2.0 with gemini-3.8-flash-medium. The request mentioned an audio file, so Ennodia added its media input guidance to the prompt.

What came back

The worker returned the spoken words from the sample. It reported that it used view_file on the entire eight-second file. The whole run took 20 seconds, from start to recorded result.

The next day, a separate process read the run back from local history. Its final answer matched the captured result. The task still showed the input guidance event.³

Three formats, three outcomes

The same configuration didn’t handle every format. On the same day, a FLAC file and a comparison of four WAV samples went differently.⁴

The WAV result doesn’t show that WAV fails. A timeout with four files can come from file size, task size, or the time limit. The question stays open.

The Gemini API publishes its own list of audio formats.⁵ That list describes a separate interface. It doesn’t guarantee what view_file can open inside the CLI.

What this shows, and what it doesn’t

This was one listening check. It shows that a Codex conversation can reach Gemini’s native listening through Ennodia and Antigravity, for one short MP3.

• Tool use is worker-reported. The record has no independent provider trace.
• A spoken excerpt and an exit code don’t establish transcription or cleanup quality.
• The run didn’t compare audio cleanup outputs or rank alternatives.
• The 20 seconds describe this run only. They aren’t a speed or cost benchmark.

For a larger audio job, start with a short excerpt like this one. Match the excerpts, levels, and references before you compare candidates.

Try it

Paste this into the conversation that has the audio file:

The user sent me an audio file. Can anyone listen to it natively?
Check the available agents and try a short excerpt first.

The request has your agent list the installed agents, choose one with native audio access, and probe a short range first. Record the file, range, model, and task ID with the answer.