Terminal agent · active
goose
An open-source, provider-agnostic local agent with a CLI and desktop app, extended through MCP and reusable recipes.
Visit goose ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026 · review due Oct 12, 2026
- Best for
- Developers who want a free local agent across terminal and desktop, broad model choice, and MCP-based extensibility.
- Avoid if
- You want inline autocomplete, a hosted cloud agent, or a tool scoped exclusively to coding.
01 / Editorial view
Where it fits
Strengths
- Wide provider and local-model support
- Large MCP extension ecosystem
- Shareable recipes with scheduled runs
Limitations
- General-purpose scope beyond software development
- Model quality, privacy, and cost depend on the configured provider
- Client architecture is mid-transition to goose 2.0
02 / Workflow
Surfaces and capabilities
- Autocomplete
- Unknown
- Chat
- Yes
- Agent
- Yes
- Background agent
- Yes
- Review
- Unknown
- Testing
- Yes
Editors
Zed via Agent Client Protocol, Other ACP-compatible editors
Operating systems
macOS, Windows, Linux
Repository hosts
Unknown
Languages
Unknown
Bring your own key
Yes
Bring your own model
Yes
03 / Cost and deployment
What it costs to run
Individual
Free software; model-provider usage or local compute costs are separate.
Team
No separate team plan is documented.
Enterprise
Unknown
Inference is billed by the selected model provider; not every provider offers a free tier. ACP providers such as Claude Code and Codex require the corresponding paid subscription.
04 / Privacy
Data handling
- Code processing
- goose runs locally; conversations, prompts, and information it accesses may be sent to the configured model provider under that provider’s retention and privacy policies.
- Indexing
- Unknown
- Retention
- Sessions are stored in a local SQLite database; logs stay local and log directories older than two weeks are deleted automatically.
- Training policy
- Unknown
- Enterprise controls
- Anonymous usage data requires consent and can be disabled, Local model support, Custom distributions with preconfigured providers and extensions
05 / Evidence
Primary sources
- goose repository ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026classification, capabilities.agent, capabilities.testing, models.byo_key, deployment, privacy.enterprise_controls
- goose quickstart ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026classification.primary_category, classification.interfaces, capabilities.chat, capabilities.agent
- goose installation guide ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026classification.interfaces, compatibility.operating_systems, deployment.local_app, pricing.billing_basis, pricing.free_tier, pricing.from
- goose LLM provider configuration ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026models, pricing.individual, pricing.notes
- goose in Zed via ACP ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026compatibility.editors
- goose reusable and scheduled recipes ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026capabilities.background_agent
- goose anonymous usage data ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026privacy.code_processing, privacy.enterprise_controls
- goose logging system ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026privacy.retention
- goose moves to the Agentic AI Foundation ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026identity.vendor, identity.homepage, deployment.repository
- goose releases ↗Checked Sep 12, 2026identity.status
Changelog
What changed
- Five profiles added, completing the 25-tool catalogueSep 12, 2026Amp, Augment Code, Jules, goose, and Agent Orchestrator join the landscape with primary-source evidence, filling the cloud-agent layer and adding a third orchestrator.
Next