# Amp vs goose

> goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Amp leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent harness. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Amp leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent harness.

- Amp: grade C, 57.1/100, rank #482 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amp.json
- goose: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #72 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/goose.json

## Which one, for what

### Amp (C)

Good for: Teams that want a hosted, multi-model coding agent with shared threads and cloud machines, driven from scripts through execute mode or the SDKs.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 63

Watch for: The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin

### goose (BB)

Good for: People and pipelines that want one agent across many model providers or local models, with recipes for repeatable jobs and a desktop app for non-engineers.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 77 against 31
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 72
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 69
- Security & auth, 77 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 79

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: Autonomous mode, which approves every tool call, is the default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amp | goose | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 31 | 77 | goose +46 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 81 | goose +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 82 | goose +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 77 | goose +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 60 | goose +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 86 | goose +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 63 | Amp +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **57.1 · C** | **73.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amp | goose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Amp Frontier Corporation | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is private | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 41k npm/wk | 55k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Amp.** Execute mode streams JSON in a format close to Claude Code's, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and the security reference names each provider and what it sees. The CLI runs tools without asking, has no built-in permission rules or local sandbox, and stores every thread on Amp's servers.

**goose.** Telemetry off until the user opts in, with the collected fields listed. Autonomous mode, which approves every tool call, is the default.

## Before you call either

### Amp

1. Run unattended jobs in a container or VM. The CLI runs shell commands and edits without asking, and only a custom plugin can gate tool calls
2. Set `AMP_API_KEY` to an access token starting `sgamp_` from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token that `amp login` stores
3. Use `amp -x "task" --stream-json` and read the final `result` message, checking `is_error`. Exit codes are not documented
4. Set `AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1` or `amp.updates.mode` to `disabled` in CI. Updates install automatically by default
5. Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown

### goose

1. Set `GOOSE_MODE=smart_approve` or `approve` before a run. The default approves everything
2. Pass `--max-turns` with a real limit. The default is 1000
3. Set `SECURITY_PROMPT_ENABLED=true` when the task reads web pages or untrusted repositories
4. Use `--output-format json` and `--no-session` in CI, and check the exit code
5. Point remotes and links at aaif-goose/goose and goose-docs.ai. The block/goose paths redirect

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amp or goose?

goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Amp leads on transparency & trust.

### Are Amp and goose open source?

No open-source release is listed for Amp. goose is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amp", "b": "goose"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amp goose`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/goose.json

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