Most people looking for a goose alternative don't need one. goose has not been abandoned: it moved from block/goose to aaif-goose/goose under the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation, the repository is not archived, it was updated as recently as October 1, 2026, and v1.52.0 was released on September 23, 2026. If you still leave, the right alternative depends entirely on why—and what no comparison table tells you is what comes with you. Instructions carry over; recipes and session history do not; and every destination formats the endpoint URL differently from goose.
A search for “goose ai alternative” returns two unrelated products, so first, a clarification. This page is about goose, the open-source coding agent documented at goose-docs.ai. It is not goose.ai, a managed NLP inference service described on its site as a joint venture between CoreWeave and Anlatan; its per-request prices have nothing to do with the agent and do not appear here. Two other GitHub namesakes: pressly/goose, a Go database migration tool, and goose-lang/goose, which converts a subset of Go to Rocq.
The rename is real, and only half-propagated
The move was announced on the project blog on April 7, 2026: the repository and associated projects left block/goose for a new organization, and old documentation links redirect. What makes goose look abandoned is that the old name remains in shipped components. Verified October 1, 2026:
| Component | What it does today | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
github.com/block/goose | HTTP 301 to github.com/aaif-goose/goose | Moved on the server side |
| Homebrew cask | Still block-goose, version 1.52.0, with a homepage field still pointing to block.github.io/goose | Still Block |
| VS Code extension ID | Still block.vscode-goose | Still Block |
| Windows configuration folder | Still %APPDATA%\Block\goose\config\ | Still Block |
Three reasons to leave that are actually goose settings
- “I want it to stop asking”—or to ask more. A session's
/modecommand acceptsauto,approve,chat, andsmart_approve. Autonomy is a slider, not a missing feature. - “I want it in my editor.” Zed can launch goose as an ACP agent, and an official VS Code extension exists—but its page is under
/docs/experimental/and warns that its behavior may change. So it is experimental, not the equivalent of a mature extension. - “I want to stop paying per token.” goose's ACP providers—Claude ACP, Codex ACP, Amp ACP, Pi ACP—let you use your existing Claude Code or ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscriptions, “with no per-token API cost.” Documented limitations: no
goose session resumeor fork for now, and different session IDs.
If you leave: choose based on the reason
| Why you're leaving | What fits | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Another terminal agent, with a larger community | opencode | Its GitHub organization moved from sst to anomalyco; the name, site, and npm package have not changed |
| A polished terminal interface and fast output | Crush | FSL-1.1-MIT, not an OSI-approved open-source license: use is permitted for any purpose “other than a Competing Use.” Fine for ordinary development, a poor choice if licensing is why you're leaving |
| You work in VS Code and want a mature extension | Cline | An editor extension is not the same form as a CLI agent; your terminal scripts and headless runs do not carry over |
| Long autonomous runs, with a hosted option | OpenHands | The GitHub organization is now called OpenHands and the site is openhands.dev; no dated announcement of the change was found |
| A lightweight pair-programming loop, independent of the editor | Aider | Not archived, but inactive: last commit on May 22, 2026; latest GitHub release v0.86.0 on August 9, 2025. See our Aider pricing page |
| The license or governance | goose is already under Apache-2.0 in a Linux Foundation project | Check what you actually gain; opencode and OpenHands use MIT, Cline uses Apache-2.0 |
Two names that show up in lists but are not destinations. Roo Code is archived: the GitHub API reports archived: true, with its latest release v3.54.0 on May 15, 2026. Continue is not a destination either: its README says the continuedev/continue repository is no longer actively maintained and is read-only for everyone, even though GitHub's archived flag remains false—the README is the one to believe.
Status of each candidate, checked on the same day
| Project | Repository | License | Latest release | Archived? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| goose | aaif-goose/goose | Apache-2.0 | v1.52.0, Sep 23, 2026 | No |
| opencode | anomalyco/opencode | MIT | v1.18.34, Sep 30, 2026 | No |
| Crush | charmbracelet/crush | FSL-1.1-MIT | v0.97.1, Sep 29, 2026 | No |
| Cline | cline/cline | Apache-2.0 | v4.1.22, Sep 30, 2026 | No |
| OpenHands | OpenHands/OpenHands | MIT | v1.24.0, Sep 25, 2026 | No |
| Aider | Aider-AI/aider | Apache-2.0 | v0.86.0, Aug 9, 2025 | No, but last commit was May 22, 2026 |
| Roo Code | RooCodeInc/Roo-Code | Apache-2.0 | v3.54.0, May 15, 2026 | Yes |
Read from the GitHub API on October 1, 2026; releases and activity change quickly, so recheck before standardizing on a tool for a team. As for the client itself: goose is under Apache-2.0 and its installation page only requires credits with your LLM provider; Cline lists free open source and an Enterprise plan with custom pricing; OpenHands offers free local open source, a free SaaS individual plan, and Enterprise with custom pricing; the Crush README presents Charm Hyper as a subscription service with a free plan and no published figures.
What migrates from goose, and what does not
| What you have | Where it lives | Does it migrate? |
|---|---|---|
| Project instructions | AGENTS.md and .goosehints, read at the project root and in parent folders | Yes. goose reads AGENTS.md natively; the list is set by CONTEXT_FILE_NAMES. Check which filename the destination reads |
| Agent Skills | SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter, under ~/.agents/skills/ and .agents/skills/ | Portable according to goose documentation for agents that follow the Agent Skills convention—a claim about the convention, not a promise for every tool above |
| Recipes | goose-specific YAML or JSON (title, description, instructions, or prompt) | No. No alternative reads this format; plan to rewrite them |
| Session history | SQLite database ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/sessions.db since version 1.10.0 | No. goose session export produces JSON or Markdown, which can only be reimported into goose Desktop |
| Provider API keys | System keychain, or secrets.yaml in plaintext; environment variables take precedence | No. goose does not read keys from config.yaml: there is nothing to copy, so issue or re-enter a key |
Rolling back costs nothing; keep it. Since keys are never in config.yaml and sessions live in their own database, installing a second agent will not disturb a working goose installation. Leave goose in place, run a real task in the candidate, then decide. Export any sessions that matter before uninstalling anything: export is one-way.
The endpoint URL changes shape when you move
This is the most useful migration fact on the page, and it can silently break configurations. goose does not take a single base URL, but a host and a path by default: its providers page documents OPENAI_HOST (default api.openai.com) and OPENAI_BASE_PATH, “the path appended to the host (default v1/chat/completions)”. So the host is the bare origin, without /v1. opencode and Crush take a complete base URL, with /v1 in it.
# goose — hôte et chemin SÉPARÉS. L'origine ne porte pas /v1.
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-kn-...
OPENAI_HOST=https://api.kunavo.com
# OPENAI_BASE_PATH reste vide ; sa valeur par défaut est v1/chat/completions.
# opencode — une baseURL complète, /v1 compris, dans opencode.json :
# "options": { "baseURL": "https://api.kunavo.com/v1" }
# Crush — une --base-url complète, /v1 compris. Ce n'est PAS une commande shell :
# un crushrc est du Bash avec des builtins Crush, dont "provider add".
provider add kunavo --type openai-compat \
--base-url "https://api.kunavo.com/v1" --api-key "$KUNAVO_API_KEY"Copy the goose host as-is into either destination and the request loses its /v1; copy in the other direction and goose requests /v1/v1/chat/completions. The goose page says that a 404 usually means OPENAI_BASE_PATH is not right for your proxy—a path error, not an authentication error. Client-specific details are in the (English-language) guides for goose, opencode, Crush, Cline, and OpenHands. These are configuration references drawn from each vendor's documentation: Kunavo has not run any of these clients against its endpoint, and a configuration page is not a test.
What a session costs, and caching
First, a caching detail. The goose providers page says it automatically enables Anthropic prompt caching (markers cache_control) when Claude is accessed through the Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, Databricks, OpenRouter, and LiteLLM providers. Claude accessed through goose's generic OpenAI provider is not on that list, so goose does not add those markers on that route. The figures below therefore assume no cache discount, the conservative interpretation.
What follows is illustrative token arithmetic, not a measured task cost or a bill cap: an agent session that sends 400,000 uncached input tokens over all its turns and receives 25,000 output tokens—the context sent on each turn makes agent sessions input-heavy. Current rates in the Kunavo catalog per million tokens.
| Model | Input / output per million | Estimated cost per session |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.70 / $3.50 | $0.367 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $1.40 / $7.00 | $0.735 |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | $2.00 / $12.00 | $1.100 |
Multiply by your daily sessions before using it as a budget; the lowest price and the cheapest way to finish the task are two different things. Kunavo's catalog amount is a billing floor, not a ceiling: when the upstream reports its cost, the bill is the higher of the catalog cost and the upstream cost multiplied by the applicable markup. The minimum top-up is $10 in prepaid credit, with no subscription; Stripe checkout accepts cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Link, but not SEPA direct debit (billing). Two free options documented in goose are worth trying before buying anything: $10 in credits offered the first time you authenticate automatically with Tetrate through goose, and Google Gemini's free offering to get started, with no stated quota.
More reading
Staying on goose and only changing the model route? goose vs Claude Code covers the ACP versus API choice. Leaving? opencode alternatives, Crush vs opencode, and OpenHands vs opencode compare the clients. The English version of this page is goose alternatives. If what you want is one key for several of these clients, create a Kunavo account and run a bounded task before committing a team to it.
Frequently asked questions
Is goose abandoned?
No. goose moved from the block/goose GitHub organization to aaif-goose/goose as a project of the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation, announced on the project blog on April 7, 2026. As of October 1, 2026, the GitHub API showed the repository was not archived, was under Apache-2.0, had been pushed to that day, and had version v1.52.0 published on September 23, 2026. The Block name remains in the Homebrew cask (block-goose), VS Code extension ID (block.vscode-goose), and Windows configuration folder, which makes it look abandoned in search results even though it is not.
Are goose and goose.ai the same thing?
No, and this is the most common confusion for this query. goose.ai is a managed NLP inference service, described on its own website as a joint venture of CoreWeave and Anlatan; its homepage mentions no coding agent, CLI, or repository. goose, the coding agent, is the Apache-2.0 open-source project aaif-goose/goose, documented at goose-docs.ai. Any per-request price associated with goose.ai describes that inference service, not the agent.
What is the best open-source alternative to goose?
It depends on what you are replacing, and goose is already under Apache-2.0, so the license is rarely the reason. For a terminal agent with a large community: opencode, under MIT, v1.18.34 published September 30, 2026. For working in VS Code: Cline, under Apache-2.0, v4.1.22 from September 30, 2026. For long autonomous runs with a hosted option: OpenHands, under MIT, v1.24.0 from September 25, 2026. Crush releases quickly—v0.97.1 on September 29, 2026—but is under FSL-1.1-MIT, which excludes “Competing Use” and is not an OSI open-source license: a poor choice if the license is why you are switching. Verified October 1, 2026.
Can I keep my goose setup when switching agents?
Partly. Project instructions carry over: goose already reads AGENTS.md alongside .goosehints (the list is defined by CONTEXT_FILE_NAMES), so the file is already in a portable format; check which filename the destination reads. goose recipes do not carry over: they use a goose-specific YAML or JSON format that no alternative reads, so you will need to rewrite them. Session history does not carry over either: since version 1.10.0, goose has stored sessions in a SQLite database, and goose session export produces JSON or Markdown that only goose Desktop can reimport. API keys cannot be copied from a config file: goose does not read them from config.yaml; they are stored in the system keychain, or in secrets.yaml as a fallback.
Why does my new agent return 404 when goose worked with the same URL?
Because goose formats the endpoint differently from almost everyone else. It splits it in two: OPENAI_HOST is documented as the custom endpoint URL (default api.openai.com), and OPENAI_BASE_PATH as the path appended to the host (default v1/chat/completions). So the host field takes the bare origin, without /v1. opencode and Crush take a complete base URL, including /v1. Copying the goose host into either one drops /v1; in the other direction, goose requests /v1/v1/chat/completions. The goose providers page interprets a 404 as an incorrect path, not an authentication error.
Do I have to pay per token if I leave goose?
Not necessarily—and this is worth checking before you leave, because goose already has an option that avoids it. According to its documentation, goose's ACP providers (Claude ACP, Codex ACP, Amp ACP, Pi ACP) let you use goose with your existing Claude Code or ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscriptions, with no per-token API cost. You need Node.js, npm, the provider's ACP adapter, and an account or subscription with that provider. Two limitations are documented: goose session resume and fork are not yet supported, and the ACP session ID differs from goose's.
Verified October 1, 2026: status, license, and latest release for all seven projects via the GitHub API; the block/goose redirect and Homebrew cask; the Continue README and Crush LICENSE; goose's providers page, ACP documentation, and CLI commands. Not verified: any runtime behavior—no client on this page was run against Kunavo's endpoint. Kunavo rates are from the live catalog, and every cost example is token arithmetic.