Block's open-source, provider-agnostic agentic CLI donated to the Linux Foundation AAIF. MCP reference implementation. Ships multiple releases per week. 33K+ stars, v1.28.0 released 2026-03-18.
Where it wins
Linux Foundation AAIF founding member — governance entirely outside any model vendor
Provider-agnostic: any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, local models via Ollama
MCP reference implementation — deepest MCP integration in category
Ships multiple releases per week (v1.28.0 released 2026-03-18)
Block (Square/Cash App) institutional backing beyond typical OSS
Apache 2.0 license — enterprise-friendly
ACP integration (March 19, 2026) — use existing Copilot/Claude/Gemini subscriptions as backend
Battle-tested at Block: 60% of 12K employees use it weekly with 50-75% time savings (self-reported)
Where to be skeptical
No published SWE-bench or Terminal-Bench scores — quality gap with Claude Code is real
Install volume unverified — Homebrew installs (~4,939/30-day) dwarfed by Claude Code's 8M npm/week
'Super jank' reputation in HN comments — UX roughness acknowledged
Internal adoption metrics are self-reported — 'same thing for free' framing is aspirational
Editorial verdict
#7 coding CLI — strongest free, open-source terminal agent. MCP-native, Apache 2.0, Linux Foundation governance. ACP integration (March 19, 2026) lets developers use existing Copilot/Claude/Gemini subscriptions. 60% of Block's 12K employees use it weekly (self-reported). No published benchmarks keep it in Tier 2.
Source
Videos
Reviews, tutorials, and comparisons from the community.
Goose Is Destroying Pi.dev and Claude Code
How Block’s custom AI agent supercharges every team, from sales to data to engineering
Goose: AI-Powered Developer Agent from Block
Coding With Goose, An AI Agent
Related
Coding CLIs / Code Agents
Free, open-source terminal agent; BYOM flexibility; MCP-heavy workflows; Block ecosystem
Software Factories
Free, open-source, provider-agnostic alternative — AAIF founding project
Claude Code
98Anthropic's official agentic coding CLI. v2.1.81 (Mar 20) shipped `--bare`, smarter worktree resume, and improved MCP OAuth while the repo crossed 82,204 stars and logged ~14 commits/week across 10+ maintainers. Terminal-native, tool-use-driven, with deep file system + shell access, #1 SWE-bench Pro standardized (45.89%), ~4% of GitHub public commits (SemiAnalysis), $2.5B annualized revenue. 8M+ npm weekly downloads. Opus 4.6 with 1M context.
OpenHands
88Category leader in multi-agent orchestration — 69,352 stars (verified), $18.8M Series A, AMD hardware partnership, 455 contributors, 1M downloads/month PyPI (3.4M all-time). SWE-Bench Verified 72% with Claude 4.5 Extended Thinking (updated 2026-03-19), Multi-SWE-Bench #1 across 8 languages. Gap to #2 is enormous on every axis.
OpenCode
88Open-source AI coding agent from SST. v1.2.27 active (2026-03-16) — development resumed after a gap. OpenAI official partnership following the Anthropic OAuth block controversy. 126K+ GitHub stars (star surge driven by Anthropic controversy). Known unauthenticated RCE fixed in v1.1.10+ (CVE, 432 HN pts). CVE-2026-22812 (CVSS 8.8-10.0) is a second serious security incident.
Gemini CLI
88Google's open-source terminal agent with Gemini 3 models, 1M token context, built-in Google Search grounding, and the best free tier in the category (60 req/min, 1K req/day). v0.35.0 (Mar 24) shipped keybinding, policy, and telemetry fixes while the repo hit 98,957 stars and 12,593 forks. Terminal-Bench 2.0: 78.4% (#1). SWE-bench Pro standardized 43.30% (#3). Plan Mode added March 2026. First-pass correctness ~50-60% (Educative.io).
Public evidence
Goose donated to the Linux Foundation AI & Automation Initiative Fund as a founding member. Governance entirely outside Block or any model vendor — highest open governance standard in the category.
Provider-agnostic, extensible agentic architecture with MCP as the extension protocol. Open-source under Apache 2.0.
Frames Goose as the free alternative to Claude Code. 60% of Block (12K employees) use it weekly with 50-75% time savings. ACP integration lets developers use existing subscriptions.
Founding project of Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation alongside MCP and AGENTS.md. Platinum members: AWS, Anthropic, Block, Bloomberg, Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI. Institutional backing from all major AI companies.
Raw GitHub source
Constrained peek so you can sanity-check the source material without leaving the site.
<div align="center">🦆 goose has moved! This project has moved from
block/gooseto the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation. Some links and references are still being updated — please bear with us during the transition.
your native open source AI agent — desktop app, CLI, and API — for code, workflows, and everything in between
<p align="center"> <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0" <a href="https://discord.gg/goose-oss" <a href="https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/actions/workflows/ci.yml" </p> </div>goose is a general-purpose AI agent that runs on your machine. Not just for code — use it for research, writing, automation, data analysis, or anything you need to get done.
A native desktop app for macOS, Linux, and Windows. A full CLI for terminal workflows. An API to embed it anywhere. Built in Rust for performance and portability.
goose works with 15+ providers — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure, Bedrock, and more. Use API keys or your existing Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini subscriptions via ACP. Connect to 70+ extensions via the Model Context Protocol open standard.
goose is part of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation.
Download the desktop app for macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Or install the CLI:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/releases/download/stable/download_cli.sh | bash
Why did the developer choose goose as their AI agent?
Because it always helps them "migrate" their code to production! 🚀