OpenCode vs Goose (2026): 209k-Star Terminal Agent vs Linux Foundation's Rust Platform

Summary: Goose vs OpenCode at a Glance

Latest Releases (September 2026)

Both projects ship weekly. OpenCode released v1.18.26 through v1.18.32 between September 1 and September 21. Goose released v1.49.0 through v1.51.0 between September 3 and September 17.

Goose v1.51.0 sends a session ID header for OpenCode Go. That means Goose can use OpenCode's $10/month Go plan as its model provider. Goose v1.48.0 (August 27) also added OpenCode Zen as a provider. The two tools are not strictly rivals.

Stars, License, and Governance

OpenCode is the most-starred open-source coding agent on GitHub at 209,405 stars, ahead of openai/codex (125,962) and gemini-cli (107,130). The repo is anomalyco/opencode. The old sst/opencode URL redirects there. It ships under MIT.

Goose has 54,568 stars under Apache-2.0. The Linux Foundation announced the Agentic AI Foundation on December 9, 2025, with three founding projects: Anthropic's MCP, OpenAI's AGENTS.md, and Block's Goose. In April 2026 the repo moved from block/goose to aaif-goose/goose and the docs moved to goose-docs.ai. If you have an old clone, run git remote set-url origin git@github.com:aaif-goose/goose.git. The repo has a public GOVERNANCE.md and a guide for building custom distributions with preset providers and extensions.

Install Commands

Two gotchas. The Goose Homebrew formula is block-goose-cli, not goose. For CI, pipe the Goose script through CONFIGURE=false bash to skip the interactive setup. OpenCode's README recommends the anomalyco/tap formula over the official brew install opencode, which it says updates less often. The V2 installer replaces the V1 opencode binary, and V2 has no Windows package manager builds.

Model Providers

OpenCode supports 75+ LLM providers through the AI SDK and the Models.dev catalog, plus local models via Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp. Custom OpenAI-compatible providers are configured in JSON:

{"provider":{"myprovider":{
  "npm":"@ai-sdk/openai-compatible",
  "options":{"baseURL":"https://api.myprovider.com/v1"},
  "models":{ ... }
}}}

Goose works with 15+ providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure, Bedrock, and more) and connects to 70+ extensions over MCP. It also has four ACP providers that wrap another agent instead of a raw model: Claude ACP, Codex ACP, Amp ACP, and Pi ACP. OpenCode has the wider model menu. Goose has the broader extension ecosystem and a general-purpose scope.

Pricing: Free Tools, Optional OpenCode Go and Zen

Both agents are free. The cost is the model. OpenCode sells two optional model plans. Goose sells nothing.

OpenCode Go caps usage per model in dollars. Most models get $60 a month. Heavier ones such as GLM-5.3, Kimi K3, and DeepSeek V4 Pro get $15. v1.18.22 removed the first-month discount on August 24, 2026, so Go is a flat $10 from month one. Limits apply in three windows: 20% of the monthly budget per 5 hours, 50% per week, 100% per month. Once you hit a limit you can fall back to your Zen balance. Zen passes card fees through at cost (4.4% + $0.30 per transaction) and auto-reloads $20 when the balance drops below $5 unless you turn it off. See the Go docs and Zen docs.

Subscription Reuse

A common question is whether you can point either tool at a Claude Pro or Max plan instead of paying per token. With OpenCode, no. Its provider docs say plugins exist for Claude Pro/Max and that "Anthropic explicitly prohibits this." Goose takes a different route. Its Claude ACP provider does not call the Claude API with your subscription token. It runs Claude Code itself through the @agentclientprotocol/claude-agent-acp adapter and passes Goose's extensions to it as MCP servers.

Set it with GOOSE_PROVIDER=claude-acp (or codex-acp, amp-acp, pi-acp). One limit: ACP sessions cannot be resumed or forked yet, so goose session resume and goose session fork do not work with them. The Goose README also mentions Gemini subscriptions via ACP, but the ACP provider docs list only the four above.

Runaway Loops and Turn Limits

The failure people report most with BYO-key agents is a loop that burns budget. A Hacker News user tried Goose on a small feature and said it ran what looked like an infinite loop that used three-quarters of a monthly Poe subscription on one prompt. The defaults explain why that can happen.

OpenCode pauses and asks when the same tool call repeats 3 times with identical input. That is the doom_loop permission, and it defaults to ask. Goose runs up to 1,000 turns without user input in auto mode. If you run Goose on a metered plan, set GOOSE_MAX_TURNS to something like 50 and GOOSE_MODE=smart_approve. In OpenCode, set steps on an agent to cap its iterations. The legacy maxSteps key is deprecated.

Where OpenCode Wins

A Hacker News user who tried Goose and Aider before settling on OpenCode gave the reason plainly: it worked like Claude Code, their main agent, while serving a local model through Ollama.

Where Goose Wins

Which Model to Run Inside Each

Both agents are BYO-model, so the model sets your quality and cost. A long agent session sends the same growing context on every turn, so input price dominates the bill. Loops multiply it.

Morph serves open coding models on custom inference kernels through an OpenAI-compatible API. Add it to OpenCode as a custom @ai-sdk/openai-compatible provider, or to Goose as a custom OpenAI-compatible provider.

See Morph Open Source Models and pricing.

Decision Framework

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OpenCode or Goose better?

OpenCode for a terminal coding agent: 209,405 stars, 75+ providers, and a doom_loop guard on by default. Goose for a desktop app, non-code tasks, Linux Foundation governance, and reusing a Claude Code or ChatGPT subscription through ACP.

What is Goose?

An open-source AI agent built by Block and donated to the Linux Foundation's Agentic AI Foundation, now at aaif-goose/goose. Written in Rust. Ships as a desktop app, CLI, and API, works with 15+ providers, and connects to 70+ MCP extensions. Latest release v1.51.0 (September 17, 2026).

How many GitHub stars does OpenCode have?

209,405 stars (MIT) as of September 22, 2026, ahead of Codex (125,962) and Gemini CLI (107,130).

Are they free?

Yes. OpenCode is MIT, Goose is Apache-2.0. You pay only for the model. OpenCode optionally sells Go ($10/month) and Zen (pay-as-you-go credits).

Can I use my Claude subscription?

Not with OpenCode. Its docs say Anthropic explicitly prohibits Claude Pro/Max plugins. Goose's Claude ACP provider runs Claude Code itself under your subscription, with Goose extensions passed through as MCP servers.

How do I install OpenCode and Goose?

OpenCode: curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash or brew install anomalyco/tap/opencode. Goose CLI: the download_cli.sh script from aaif-goose/goose releases, or brew install block-goose-cli. OpenCode V2: npm i -g @opencode/cli.

What is OpenCode V2?

A new release line on npm as @opencode/cli. 2.0.0 shipped September 11, 2026 and the latest is 2.0.14 (September 22, 2026). It has a new plugin API, so V1 plugins do not run, and it moves TUI config to one global cli.json. It reads V1 opencode.json as-is. V1 continues in parallel at v1.18.32.

Is Goose written in Rust? Is there a Rust alternative to OpenCode?

Goose is written in Rust. OpenCode is TypeScript. For a Rust-built open-source alternative to OpenCode with a terminal CLI, Goose is the closest match.

Does Goose run in the terminal?

Yes. The Goose CLI runs in any terminal. The default GOOSE_MODE is auto. Set approve or smart_approve to confirm tool calls. v1.51.0 added an opt-in terminal bell when a turn finishes or needs approval.