Goose (by Block) Review 2026

Open-source, extensible AI agent from Block that runs on your machine and orchestrates LLMs, MCP tools, and developer workflows.

Goose is Block's open-source desktop and CLI AI agent — the same Block that owns Square, Cash App, and Tidal — released under Apache 2.0 and documented at block.github.io/goose. Unlike SaaS coding agents, Goose runs locally and brings its own LLM provider so you can plug in OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Its core differentiator is first-class Model Context Protocol (MCP) support: Goose calls extensions and tools as MCP servers, so the rapidly growing MCP ecosystem (filesystem, GitHub, Slack, browsers, databases, custom company tools) is immediately available. The desktop app provides a chat UI with rich tool visibility, while the CLI is designed for scripting agentic workflows in terminals and CI. Goose can edit files, run shell commands, browse the web, and complete multi-step tasks, with each step shown for inspection or interruption. Because the project is open source there is no subscription — costs come from whichever model API or local model you point it at. Common use cases include code refactoring across a repo, automating ops tasks, batch documentation generation, custom internal agents with private MCP servers, and as a reference implementation for teams building their own agentic UX on top of MCP.