Get Your Money's Worth from Antigravity (2026 Guide)

When you open Antigravity for the first time, you might get a bit scared: it is the kind of software mainly aimed at engineers. Stay with me, because it is an extremely powerful tool for students and business owners alike. In this walkthrough I take you through the whole interface, from the chat agent to workspaces, agent customization with markdown files, and your first real use cases.

What you need

• Antigravity installed on your computer
• A folder you are happy to use as your first workspace

1. The main window and the chat agent (0:22)

The big area you land on is the main window: open a text document and it displays here. The most important part of Antigravity, however, is the chat window on the side. That is the agent window, and you talk to it just like you do with ChatGPT, starting with simple requests like asking how it is doing. You can open a new conversation window with the same agent whenever you want.

2. Adding media, mentions and workflows (0:51)

Click the plus symbol and you can add media: images, videos, or sound, just like you would in ChatGPT. You can also add mentions. A mention refers to a file inside your computer, because Antigravity has access to every single file on your machine. There is a workflows option too, which is more advanced; we will cover it in another video.

3. Planning mode vs fast mode, and the model selector (1:17)

The planning button gives you two options, Planning or Fast. Honestly, I always keep it in Planning mode. Whenever you are building a workflow or starting any real task, Planning is the mode you want; from time to time I switch to Fast, but do not worry much about it.

Then the model selector. This is where you choose which brain Antigravity uses: Gemini 3 Pro High, Gemini 3 Pro Low, Gemini 3 Flash, and other models. One thing is very key to understand: even if you pick Claude, a model from Anthropic, you are still using Antigravity. Changing the model to Claude does not mean you are using Claude Code. Extremely important distinction.

4. Opening a workspace and creating gemini.md (2:02)

Now, how do we actually work with this? Click File, then Open Folder. That folder is what we call a workspace. I created one called Antigravity YouTube and opened it. The Explorer panel shows the folder is empty, so I create my first file and name it:

gemini.md

The .md extension stands for Markdown, a simple text format. Inside this file I type my first instructions:

Hey, talk to me in Spanish.
If you respond, always do it politely.

Save with Ctrl+S. So why did I create a gemini.md file? Because this file defines how the agent behaves. It is where you customize your interaction with the agent window. From now on, this workspace's agent will always reply in Spanish, politely. These are simple instructions, but you can go beyond: put entire frameworks in there, for example "if I ever ask you to change the look of a website, always follow this framework." That is one of the better use cases.

5. Agent manager mode (3:54)

Click Open Agent Manager and you enter a mode that feels much more familiar. Here you see your list of workspaces, which is the exact same concept as projects in ChatGPT. My Antigravity YouTube folder is there with the conversation I had earlier. Click the plus symbol to start a new conversation that talks to all the files in that folder, and switch workspaces with a single button.

6. The Playground for quick questions (4:43)

The playground is where you go for something very simple that does not belong to any project. Think of it as the anonymous chat window in ChatGPT, the one with no memory. Same interaction, zero project context.

7. First use cases: plans, research, and generated files (5:12)

Let's put it to work. In the playground I ask:

Can you create a business plan to launch a new SaaS product?

It starts thinking and generating, and here is the nice part: I can run several use cases at once. In parallel I ask:

Can you explore the WhatsApp market in Latin America for me?

These are things ChatGPT can do too, so why use this tool? Because Antigravity can generate a lot more than ChatGPT, and it can connect to any software out there via API keys and MCP servers, which we will cover in another video. Watch how it works: it creates a list of tasks, shows an implementation plan I can review, and then goes off and does the work while I chill or queue up other use cases. A lot more reasoning, a lot better output.

The agent manager mode and the IDE mode are completely equivalent; use whichever suits you. What I like about the IDE window is browsing the files in the folder, so let's generate one:

Please write a poem and save it as a text file in this folder.

It writes the poem, saves it as a text file inside my computer, and I can open it or send it to someone. Scale that idea up: HTML dashboards, financial reports, anything.

8. Wrap up and what is next (7:35)

Those are all the basic functionalities of Antigravity. Get started with this piece of software, because it is probably one of the best things you will do in 2026. The more complex use cases are coming in the next video.

Pitfalls and tips

• Do not confuse the model with the product. Selecting Claude in the model selector does not turn Antigravity into Claude Code.
• Keep Planning mode on for anything that matters. Fast mode is the exception, not the default.
• Your gemini.md instructions only shape the agent of that workspace, so set one up per folder you work in.
• Use the playground for throwaway questions so your workspaces stay clean.

Where to go next

Antigravity also serves as an extension route into Claude Code, which I cover in Claude Code for Beginners (2026 Guide). If you live more on the OpenAI side, squeeze that subscription with Get Your Money's Worth from Custom GPTs 2026 Guide.