claude-code vs goose
claude-code is much bigger: 144.1k stars against 53.9k. Over the days we have tracked them claude-code moved +4.4% and goose +5.3%, so goose is growing faster right now.
goose leads on customization and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin.
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
A terminal-first agent that executes routine coding tasks and integrates git workflows, plus @claude GitHub tagging.
- Stars
- 144.1k
- Tracked growth
- +4.4%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 15h ago
- Language
- Python
- License
- none declared
- Cost to run
- Anthropic cloud; see docs
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.
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.
| Axis | claude-code | goose |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff / file only | ●●●●● Diff/File only |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● No noise controls | ●●●●● None mentioned |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Plugins & config | ●●●●● Extensions & distro |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Cloud service only | ●●●●● Self-hostable |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Anthropic only | ●●●●● BYO key & local |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● One-command install |
Which one to pick
Pick claude-code if…
Easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Pick goose if…
Privacy-first — run a native desktop/CLI agent locally while still using your preferred cloud or local models and many extensions.
- Customization: Extensions & distro (5/5 against 3/5)
- Privacy: Self-hostable (4/5 against 2/5)
- Model freedom: BYO key & local (5/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
anthropics/claude-code
Hacker News: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates drew 1364 points and 753 comments.
aaif-goose/goose
Hacker News: Goose: An open-source, extensible AI agent that goes beyond code suggestions drew 249 points and 68 comments.
Questions people ask
Is claude-code better than goose?
goose leads on customization and privacy and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin. claude-code is worth picking when easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Which of claude-code and goose keeps my code private?
claude-code: Cloud service only (2/5). goose: Self-hostable (4/5).
What does each one cost to run?
claude-code: Anthropic cloud; see docs. goose: Your API key for cloud models; can use local models..
Full profiles: anthropics/claude-code and aaif-goose/goose. Everything else in CLI coding agents.