Acinetobacter baumannii is a nosocomial pathogen, which garners widespread attention for its infections and drug resistance. Tools to rapidly dissect the A. baumannii genome will facilitate the study of its pathogenic mechanism. Here, we summarized genetic manipulation tools for A. baumannii genome, including various methods for transformation of exogenous DNA into A. baumannii (electroporation, natural transformation, conjugation) and genome modification techniques (allelic exchange, recombineering, transposon mutagenesis), and carried out a preliminary prospect on progress of genome editing tools for A. baumannii.