Goose

Goose is an open-source, extensible AI agent stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) at the Linux Foundation. Block (formerly Square) created Goose and donated it to AAIF alongside Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP) and OpenAI's AGENTS.md, so the project is no longer a single-vendor side project—it is foundation-hosted infrastructure for local agents. The primary GitHub home is now aaif-goose/goose; the desktop app, CLI, and API still ship under the Apache 2.0 license. Goose is not a code editor or a chat box bolted onto an IDE. It is a general-purpose agent that runs on your machine: install tools, execute shell commands, edit files, browse, manage git, and orchestrate multi-step workflows. Out of the box it reads and writes files, runs commands, works with GitHub, and talks to external services through MCP extensions. With 70+ documented extensions and support for 15+ model providers—including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure, Bedrock, plus 2026 additions such as Alibaba Qwen (DashScope), Perplexity, Databricks AI Gateway, Vercel AI Gateway, xAI SuperGrok subscriptions, Scaleway, and NEAR AI Cloud—you choose the model and the tool surface. As of late July 2026 the project was releasing on the v1.45 line (v1.45.0 landed 2026-07-29), with frequent point releases through the summer. June 2026's 1.36/1.37 pair doubled down on open provider integrations so teams are not locked to a single frontier model. You can also attach existing Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini subscriptions through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) instead of minting separate API keys for every workflow. On macOS, Goose ships a native desktop app plus a CLI installable via the official download script or Homebrew casks (block-goose / block-goose-cli remain the familiar brew tokens for many machines). It targets Apple Silicon and modern macOS, including Tahoe 26.x workflows. Competitive pressure in August 2026 is intense: Claude Code, OpenAI's Codex surface inside the ChatGPT desktop app, Cursor, and Meta's newly launched Muse Code (August 2026) all compete for agent mindshare. Goose's differentiator remains breadth—MCP extensibility, local-first execution, foundation governance, and model agnosticism—rather than a single closed coding loop. When evaluating whether to standardize on this app for a Mac-based workflow in late 2026, weigh three practical factors: how often the vendor ships security updates for current macOS releases including Apple Silicon and Tahoe 26.x, whether pricing is predictable (one-time, free open source, or subscription), and whether the tool still matches how your team actually works day to day. Documentation quality, export paths, and community responsiveness often matter more than feature checklists. Prefer official download channels or Homebrew casks/formulae, verify notarization where applicable, and keep a rollback plan when a major version changes storage formats or default settings. For AI-enabled products, re-check model names and rate limits quarterly—they change faster than UI chrome. For open-source tools, pin versions in Brewfiles or internal catalogs so a surprise upgrade does not break CI. Finally, capture a short internal note on why you chose the app: future you will thank present you when a flashy rival appears and you need a reasoned comparison instead of vibes.