What each one says about the other
These sentences were written about each tool on its own, before this page existed, and each names the other tool by name. They are quoted, not composed.
Goose on opencode · not for
A developer who wants the widest model catalogue in a terminal should pick OpenCode, which reaches 75+ providers from one config file.
“OpenCode uses the AI SDK and Models.dev to support 75+ LLM providers and it supports running local models.”
Goose and opencode, fact by fact
| Fact | Goose | opencode |
|---|---|---|
| Starsopencode has 157,269 more stars (3.9×). | 55,064Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 212,333Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Newest commitBoth committed on the same day. | 7 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 | 8 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Contributorsopencode has 1 more contributors. | 453Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 454Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| LicenseApache-2.0 against MIT. | Apache-2.0Verified 8 Oct 2026 | MITVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Latest stable releaseopencode released 4 days more recently. | v1.53.0published 2 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 | v1.18.35published 6 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| npm downloads | not tracked for Goose | 3,318,599 a weekopencode-aiVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Homebrew installs | not tracked for Goose | 21,432 in 30 daysopencodeVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Repository | aaif-goose/gooseRustVerified 8 Oct 2026 | anomalyco/opencodeTypeScriptVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
What we know about Goose
goose is the only agent in this set governed by a foundation rather than a vendor, and it can borrow an existing Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription over the Agent Client Protocol instead of an API key.
“goose is part of the [Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)](https://aaif.io/) at the Linux Foundation.”
Automate work that is not coding — research, writing, data analysis — on the same machine and the same agent, through the desktop app, the CLI or the API.
“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.”
Wire the agent into tools you already run: goose connects to 70+ extensions over the Model Context Protocol.
“Connect to 70+ extensions via the [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) open standard.”
Ship one configuration to a whole team: a custom distribution bundles the providers, extensions and branding before anybody installs it.
“[Custom Distributions](https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/blob/main/CUSTOM_DISTROS.md) — build your own goose distro with preconfigured providers, extensions, and branding”
Model choice is not free: goose leans on tool calling, so a weak or local model degrades it, and the vendor names Claude 4 as the model it works best with.
“goose relies heavily on tool calling capabilities and currently works best with Claude 4 models.”
Two OpenAI reasoning models do not run at all, because they cannot call tools.
“o1-mini and o1-preview are not supported because goose uses tool calling.”
Unattended scheduling is broken in 1.45.0: headless runs die at the first tool call and a recipe's own goose_mode is ignored.
“Scheduler unusable for unattended recipes on 1.45.0: headless runs die at first tool call, recipe-level goose_mode is silently ignored, an interrupted run-now permanently wedges the job, and spawned sessions get no schedule_id”
A developer who wants the widest model catalogue in a terminal should pick OpenCode, which reaches 75+ providers from one config file.
“OpenCode uses the AI SDK and Models.dev to support 75+ LLM providers and it supports running local models.”
What Goose costs
goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key.
“Access GPT-5 Codex models optimized for code generation and understanding. Requires a ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscription.”
What we know about opencode
OpenCode reaches 75+ LLM providers and local models from a single config file, because it resolves every model through the AI SDK and the Models.dev catalogue instead of a hand-written provider list.
“OpenCode uses the AI SDK and Models.dev to support 75+ LLM providers and it supports running local models.”
Explore an unfamiliar codebase before you change it: the built-in plan agent refuses file edits and asks before each bash command.
“**plan** - Read-only agent for analysis and code exploration · - Denies file edits by default · - Asks permission before running bash commands · - Ideal for exploring unfamiliar codebases or planning changes”
Run one task against two vendors' models in the same session: `/connect` adds a provider key and the model picker switches without a restart.
“Add the API keys for the provider using the /connect command.”
Run the agent inside CI on your own runner: mentioning /opencode or /oc on a GitHub issue or pull request executes the task in GitHub Actions.
“OpenCode integrates with your GitHub workflow. Mention /opencode or /oc in your comment, and OpenCode will execute tasks within your GitHub Actions runner.”
A fresh install edits files and runs shell commands with no approval prompt, because every permission except `doom_loop` and `external_directory` starts at allow.
“Most permissions default to "allow".”
Memory grows through a long terminal session: the maintainers opened a central memory thread on 2026-04-02, asked users for heap snapshots taken once the process reaches 1-2 GB, and the thread is still open 139 days later.
“We have scattered reports of memory issues so we are going to tackle them all in a central place.”
`/share` copies the transcript to OpenCode's servers, and the resulting link needs no password.
“Shared conversations are publicly accessible to anyone with the link.”
A team that must lock the agent down before its first run should choose Codex CLI, which starts inside an OS-enforced sandbox with the network switched off.
“By default, the agent runs with network access turned off.”
What opencode costs
OpenCode Go, the optional subscription, costs $5 for the first month and $10 a month after that, and one workspace can hold only one subscriber.
“OpenCode Go is a low cost subscription — $5 for your first month, then $10/month — that gives you reliable access to popular open coding models.”
A workspace can hold only one Go subscriber, so a second developer needs a second workspace.
“Only one member per workspace can subscribe to OpenCode Go.”
Questions people ask
- Are Goose and opencode still maintained?
- Goose committed to aaif-goose/goose (main) on 7 Oct 2026. opencode committed to anomalyco/opencode (dev) on 8 Oct 2026. Both readings come from the default branch of each repository, on the date shown beside them.
- What do Goose and opencode cost?
- Goose: goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key. opencode: OpenCode Go, the optional subscription, costs $5 for the first month and $10 a month after that, and one workspace can hold only one subscriber. A workspace can hold only one Go subscriber, so a second developer needs a second workspace. Every figure here is quoted from the vendor's own page and linked beside the claim.
- Is Goose or opencode open source?
- Goose's repository aaif-goose/goose reports the Apache-2.0 licence. opencode's repository anomalyco/opencode reports the MIT licence. We read the licence GitHub reports for the repository, which is not the same question as whether the hosted product is free.
How we check this page
- Machine facts. Stars, contributors, the newest commit on the default branch, the licence GitHub reports and the latest stable release come from the GitHub API, and download counts from npm, PyPI, Homebrew and the VS Code Marketplace. Each value carries the day it was last confirmed, never the day this page was built. The line under each label is arithmetic on those two values.
- Judgments. Every claim about what a tool suits, what it is bad at and what it costs is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. Where there is no link, we wrote no claim.
- Index status. Both Goose and opencode carry claims we read, quoted and linked. So this page is offered to search engines.
Related comparisons
Pairs we can answer for come first.
