Dorsey launches Goose agent

Jack Dorsey’s company Block released Goose as an open-source artificial intelligence agent that can edit files, run code, and test software from a desktop app or command line. (block.xyz) Block announced “codename goose” on January 28, 2025, describing it as an agent framework for software engineering that connects language models to real actions inside a development environment. Block said Goose can read and write files, install dependencies, run tests, and refine its own output. (block.xyz) Goose is released under the Apache 2.0 license, and its documentation says it runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows through a desktop app, a command-line interface, and an application programming interface. The project site says users can connect Goose to more than 15 model providers and more than 70 Model Context Protocol extensions. (block.xyz) (goose-docs.ai) A coding agent is different from autocomplete. Anthropic says Claude Code can read a codebase, make changes across files, run tests, and deliver committed code, which is the same category of tool Goose is targeting. (anthropic.com) The business split is in where the software runs and how it is sold. Goose says it runs on a user’s machine and can use local models through Ollama or outside providers through application programming interface keys and existing subscriptions, while GitHub Copilot and Claude are sold through hosted plans. (goose-docs.ai) (github.com) (claude.com) That local setup also changes who controls the plumbing. Goose says it uses the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting agents to tools and data, and on April 7, 2026, Block said it donated Goose to the Agentic AI Foundation at the Linux Foundation alongside Model Context Protocol and OpenAI’s AGENTS.md project. (goose-docs.ai 1) (goose-docs.ai 2) The project has also built an early developer following. Goose’s documentation site listed more than 38,000 GitHub stars and 400 contributors when it was crawled, and the GitHub repository showed about 40,600 stars and 4,000 forks. (goose-docs.ai) (github.com) Block has framed Goose as a tool for reducing maintenance work rather than replacing engineers. Dhanji Prasanna, Block’s chief technology officer, said Block engineers were already using Goose to free up time for “more impactful work.” (block.xyz) The next test is whether developers want a coding agent they can inspect and run themselves, or whether they keep paying for cloud assistants bundled into editors and chat subscriptions. Goose is now trying to compete on price, portability, and control instead of closed-model convenience. (goose-docs.ai) (github.com) (claude.com)