goose vs opencode
opencode is much bigger: 204.4k stars against 53.9k. Over the days we have tracked them goose moved +5.3% and opencode +9.6%, so opencode is growing faster right now.
They split the axes: goose leads on customization and model freedom and setup ease, opencode on context depth.
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 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.
Open-source, installable coding agent that provides both a read-only 'plan' agent for safe exploration and a full-access 'build' agent for edits.
- Stars
- 204.4k
- Tracked growth
- +9.6%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 1h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Your API key, cloud model costs apply
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 | goose | opencode |
|---|---|---|
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 | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● None mentioned | ●●●●● Action gating only |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Extensions & distro | ●●●●● Configurable agents |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Self-hostable | ●●●●● Cloud APIs (your key) |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● BYO key & local | ●●●●● Bring-your-key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● Install + API key |
Which one to pick
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)
- Model freedom: BYO key & local (5/5 against 3/5)
- Setup ease: One-command install (5/5 against 3/5)
Pick opencode if…
Easy install — choose OpenCode when you want an open-source, locally installable coding agent that offers both safe read-only analysis and full-access development workflows.
- Context depth: Whole-repo analysis (5/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
aaif-goose/goose
Hacker News: Goose: An open-source, extensible AI agent that goes beyond code suggestions drew 249 points and 68 comments.
anomalyco/opencode
Hacker News: OpenCode – Open source AI coding agent drew 1274 points and 618 comments.
Questions people ask
Is goose better than opencode?
They split the axes: goose leads on customization and model freedom and setup ease, opencode on context depth. goose is worth picking when privacy-first — run a native desktop/CLI agent locally while still using your preferred cloud or local models and many extensions.
Which of goose and opencode keeps my code private?
goose: Self-hostable (4/5). opencode: Cloud APIs (your key) (3/5).
What does each one cost to run?
goose: Your API key for cloud models; can use local models.. opencode: Your API key, cloud model costs apply.
Full profiles: aaif-goose/goose and anomalyco/opencode. Everything else in Personal assistants.