ai-job-search vs goose

The two are close in size: 40.8k stars for ai-job-search, 53.9k for goose. Over the days we have tracked them ai-job-search moved +46.7% and goose +5.3%, so ai-job-search is growing faster right now.

They split the axes: ai-job-search leads on context depth and noise control, goose on privacy and model freedom and setup ease.

Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.

Where they stand today

Local-first, end-to-end job-application framework that scrapes portals, tailors LaTeX CVs/cover letters, runs a drafter–reviewer agent pipeline, and archives applications for repeatable, owned job hunting.

Stars
40.8k
Tracked growth
+46.7%
Maturity
Last commit
1d ago
Language
Python
License
MIT
Cost to run
Requires Claude Code (Anthropic) CLI / third‑party access.

A native, local-first agent with desktop app, CLI, and an extensible plugin ecosystem (Model Context Protocol) plus broad provider support.

Stars
53.9k
Tracked growth
+5.3%
Maturity
Last commit
8h ago
Language
Rust
License
Apache-2.0
Cost to run
Your API key for cloud models; can use local models.
0%+47%52 tracked days
MadsLorentzen/ai-job-searchaaif-goose/goose

Six axes, head to head

Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.

Axisai-job-searchgoose
Context depth
How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository.
Repo + documents
Diff/File only
Noise control
How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only.
Reviewer + dedupe
None mentioned
Customization
How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config.
Templates & portals
Extensions & distro
Privacy
Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only.
Third-party cloud
Self-hostable
Model freedom
Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one.
Claude + others
BYO key & local
Setup ease
What it takes to get a first useful run out of it.
CLI + deps
One-command install

Which one to pick

Pick ai-job-search if…

Extensible end-to-end workflow — use it when you want a local CLI that orchestrates scraping, fit scoring, CV/cover-letter generation (LaTeX), and a reviewer agent to produce production-ready applications you control.

  • Context depth: Repo + documents (4/5 against 1/5)
  • Noise control: Reviewer + dedupe (4/5 against 1/5)
Runs in cli. Works with anthropic, other-fixed.

Pick goose if…

Privacy-first — run a native desktop/CLI agent locally while still using your preferred cloud or local models and many extensions.

  • Privacy: Self-hostable (4/5 against 2/5)
  • Model freedom: BYO key & local (5/5 against 3/5)
  • Setup ease: One-command install (5/5 against 3/5)
Runs in cli, web-app. Works with byok, openai, anthropic, gemini, local-ollama.

What people want from each one

Questions people ask

Is ai-job-search better than goose?

They split the axes: ai-job-search leads on context depth and noise control, goose on privacy and model freedom and setup ease. ai-job-search is worth picking when extensible end-to-end workflow — use it when you want a local CLI that orchestrates scraping, fit scoring, CV/cover-letter generation (LaTeX), and a reviewer agent to produce production-ready applications you control.

Which of ai-job-search and goose keeps my code private?

ai-job-search: Third-party cloud (2/5). goose: Self-hostable (4/5).

What does each one cost to run?

ai-job-search: Requires Claude Code (Anthropic) CLI / third‑party access.. goose: Your API key for cloud models; can use local models..

Full profiles: MadsLorentzen/ai-job-search and aaif-goose/goose. Everything else in Personal assistants.