Goose (Block)
Block (Square)'s open-source on-machine agent — terminal + desktop GUI. Modular: extensions for shell, computer-control, MCP servers; multi-model via LiteLLM. Released 2024; positioned as a general-purpose local agent, not coding-only. Goose Recipes provide reusable agent workflows.
Active · Verified 2026-10-29 · fresh as of 2026-10-29 · 48 cited facts, 1 with a third-party source · 2 recorded changes · Suggest a correction
At a glance
- Type
- OSS terminal/desktop agent (Block, Inc.) vendor fix
- Tier
- T2
- Section
- Agent IDEs & coding harnesses
- Latest release
- v1.56.0 (2026-10-23) repo fix
- License
- Apache-2.0 vendor fix
- Pricing
- Free (OSS); usage via LLM provider vendor fix
- Funding
- Originated at Block; now part of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation repo fix
- Freshness
- 2026-10-29 fix
- Layer
- agent-infra repo fix
- Licensing
- open-source vendor fix
- Developer activity
- OpenRank 90.04 (12-mo avg 132.76) — 2026-03 third-party fix
When to use
Optimised for: general-purpose local agent + Goose Recipes
Anti-fit: smaller community than Claude Code / Aider; documentation thinner
Pros & cons
Pros
Block's open-source commitment + Goose Recipes give a clean YAML-templated agent-workflow story; Rust core keeps it fast.
Cons
Younger and smaller than Aider/Claude Code; less coding-specific tuning than dedicated coding agents.
Claims & capabilities
Built by Block; multi-model via LiteLLM; extensible via MCP and Goose Recipes.
Technical surface
- API surface
- CLI (Rust) + desktop GUI; MCP
- Backend storage
- local config + extensions
- Deployment
- Self-hosted only — local CLI + desktop app; BYO LLM provider
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- single-user (desktop)
- MCP
- yes — MCP client; extensions are MCP servers
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Alternatives to Goose (Block) → live options ranked by shared design, licence, hosting and MCP support
Similar systems
Other agent ides & coding harnesses in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Claude Code (Anthropic) T1
Anthropic's agentic coding tool: Claude as a coding agent in the terminal, IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains), desktop app, web/mobile, GitHub and Slack. Context via CLAUDE.md, skills, hooks, subagents and MCP servers.
- Cursor (IDE) T1
AI-first IDE that forked VS Code; Composer (multi-file edit) and Agent Mode (long-running coding agent) are its flagship surfaces. Memory layer = .cursorrules / Rules; recall via repo-aware Context Engine. Anysphere (parent) raised $900M Series C at $9.9B in May 2025; acquired by SpaceX (announced 2026-08-14, terms undisclosed), product continues under the Cursor brand.
- OpenAI Codex CLI T1
OpenAI's actively developed OSS terminal coding agent (Apr 2025), now written in Rust (codex-rs replaced the original TS CLI); also IDE extension + desktop app. Separate from the Codex Web cloud agent and the retired 2021 Codex model API. The codex mcp-server command (Codex as an MCP server) was deprecated on 2026-08-24 and removed in CLI 0.154.0 (2026-09-09); OpenAI points integrations to the experimental Codex app server, and codex mcp still connects Codex to external MCP servers.
- Opencode (SST) T2
SST team's open-source terminal coding agent — TypeScript, multi-model, MCP-native. Released 2025; explicitly positioned as a permissively-licensed Claude Code alternative. Memory via AGENTS.md (the emerging cross-harness convention).
- Bedrock AgentCore (AWS) T2
AWS Bedrock AgentCore — managed runtime to deploy + scale + observe agents. Multi-component: Runtime, Identity, Memory, Gateway, Browser, Code Interpreter, Observability. Distinct from Bedrock Agents (older fixed-config product); AgentCore is the 2025 framework-agnostic runtime for any agent (LangGraph, CrewAI, Strands, OpenAI Agents SDK).
- GitHub Copilot (Agent Mode) T1
The original AI coding assistant (Copilot in editor; 2021). 2025 evolved into a full agentic surface: chat, completions, Agent Mode (multi-step), and Copilot Workspace. Backed by Microsoft. Distinct row from Workspace — this row covers the everyday in-editor + agent mode product, Workspace covers the hosted spec-driven workflow.
Sources (47 cited facts, 1 third-party)
Each fact links to the page it came from; the badge says who published it (how to read sources).
- What it is OSS terminal/desktop agent (Block, Inc.) vendor
- What it does & what's distinct Block (Square)'s open-source on-machine agent — terminal + desktop GUI. Modular: extensi… vendor
- Claims / benefits Built by Block; multi-model via LiteLLM; extensible via MCP and Goose Recipes. vendor
- Modalities text vendor
- Created 2024-12 vendor
- Latest release v1.56.0 (2026-10-23) repo
- License Apache-2.0 vendor
- GitHub aaif-goose/goose (formerly block/goose) — ~55.7k stars, last commit 2026-10 repo
- Mindshare 5+ HN threads; covered by The New Stack, TechCrunch vendor
- Funding Originated at Block; now part of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation repo
- Customers / scale Block internal teams + OSS community vendor
- Pricing Free (OSS); usage via LLM provider vendor
- Compliance OSS — no formal compliance vendor
- Data handling Local agent; LLM calls go through user's chosen provider vendor
- Deployment Self-hosted only — local CLI + desktop app; BYO LLM provider repo
- HQ US (Oakland; Block, Inc.) vendor
- Founders / pedigree Block engineering team; led by Adewale Adetona, Bryan Landers vendor
- Memory volume / scale no scale claim vendor
- Code/weights release Open-source — github.com/block/goose vendor
- API surface CLI (Rust) + desktop GUI; MCP vendor
- Backend storage local config + extensions vendor
- Multi-tenancy single-user (desktop) vendor
- Encryption TLS for LLM APIs vendor
- Versioning config in git vendor
- Schema evolution free-form / no schema vendor
- Namespace primitives per-project vendor
- Contradiction handling human-arbitrate vendor
- MCP support yes — MCP client; extensions are MCP servers repo
- Import / export Goose Recipes are YAML vendor
- Validated verticals general-purpose agent — broad horizontal (Block uses for SRE + finance ops) vendor
- Time to running <10min (`brew install goose-cli`) vendor
- Anti-fit smaller community than Claude Code / Aider; documentation thinner vendor
- Optimised for general-purpose local agent + Goose Recipes vendor
- Adjacent infrastructure LiteLLM for multi-model routing; MCP for tool integrations; Block-internal extensions (s… vendor
- Pros Block's open-source commitment + Goose Recipes give a clean YAML-templated agent-workflo… vendor
- Cons Younger and smaller than Aider/Claude Code; less coding-specific tuning than dedicated c… vendor
- Project & sources block.github.io/goose; github.com/block/goose vendor
- cost-input-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-output-usd-per-mtok 0 vendor
- cost-tier free vendor
- cost-pricing-model free-tier vendor
- cost-last-verified 2026-06-29 vendor
- architecture-deployment-locus local vendor
- licensing-bucket open-source vendor
- positioning-platform-vs-product product vendor
- taxonomy-three-layer-rollup agent-infra repo
- developer-activity-opendigger {"activity":182.23,"as_of":"2026-03","openrank_12mo":132.76,"openrank_current":90.04,"pa… third-party
What changed
Changes to this record's lifecycle, licence, release, pricing and hosting facts, from the catalog's git history. Subscribe (Atom)
- 2026-10-29
- Homepage “https://block.github.io/goose/” → “https://goose-docs.ai/”
- 2026-10-26
- Latest release “Goose 1.x rolling” → “v1.56.0 (2026-10-23)” source
- Funding / ownership “Block (parent — public co, NYSE:XYZ)” → “Originated at Block; now part of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation” source
- Deployment “Self-host (CLI + desktop)” → “Self-hosted only — local CLI + desktop app; BYO LLM provider” source
- MCP support “native — Goose is an MCP client” → “yes — MCP client; extensions are MCP servers” source
Related systems
References (2)
- LiteLLM depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: LiteLLM for multi-model routing; MCP for tool integrations; Block-internal extensions (square/cash app workflows)
- Model Context Protocol (MCP spec) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: LiteLLM for multi-model routing; MCP for tool integrations; Block-internal extensions (square/cash app workflows)
Referenced by (7)
- agentgateway integrates with — agentgateway integrations docs have a Goose web UI page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Docker MCP Catalog, Toolkit & Gateway integrates with — Docker MCP Toolkit get-started page has connect-client instructions for Goose. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Langfuse integrates with — Langfuse's integrations directory has a Goose (Block) integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Portkey AI integrates with — Portkey docs have a Goose app/library integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Pydantic Logfire integrates with — Pydantic Logfire integrations docs have a Goose page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- TrueFoundry AI Gateway integrates with — TrueFoundry AI Gateway ecosystem lists a Goose integration page. (verified 2026-10-29)
- Vercel AI Gateway integrates with — Vercel AI Gateway docs have a Goose coding-agent page. (verified 2026-10-29)