Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Emdash vs goose
goose scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Emdash's 53.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Emdash D
Best for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH.
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where goose loses 5 points for them
Watch for
Telemetry on unless turned off in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false
goose BB
Best 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 55
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 55
- Security & auth, 77 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 54
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Autonomous mode, which approves every tool call, is the default
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Security & auth goose +39
Emdash 38
Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.
goose 77
Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for all five harnesses in this batch. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Usage data is off until the user agrees on first use, and the docs list what's collected and what isn't (30). Four modes (autonomous, smart approval, manual approval, chat only), per-tool always, ask or never rules, and an extension allowlist fetched from GOOSE_ALLOWLIST, which from 1.57.0 must be HTTPS and blocks installs when the policy can't be read, but autonomous is the default (the first-run prompt for the mode still preselects Auto in 1.57.0) and there's no sandbox, with the docs pointing to a VM or container (11). Pattern and optional ML prompt-injection detection and an adversary reviewer for shell calls, both off until turned on, plus a prompt-injection caution in SECURITY.md (11). Session logs, a diagnostics report and a Langfuse tracing guide (12). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and an AAIF governance contact, one advisory published with a CVE, and a Scorecard workflow. A second CVE, CVE-2026-109561 (low, Manual Approval bypassed by persisted read-only annotations after Smart Approval, fixed in 1.44.0), was published by NVD on 12 October from a third party, with no goose advisory of its own. No bug bounty, and goose-docs.ai/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 6 and 17 October and 1 November (13).
Agent ergonomics goose +27
Emdash 55
Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).
goose 82
Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. The built-in extensions are few, and Code Mode lets the model find MCP tools through code instead of loading every definition (23). --max-turns (default 1000), GOOSE_MAX_TOKENS and automatic context compaction, though 1000 turns is a high default for an unattended run (16). goose run --output-format json or stream-json for scripts (15). Recipes can retry with success checks and an on_failure command, and sessions resume (17). A Rust core with Python and Java SDK builds, and one command runs a task, but a provider has to be configured first and the default mode approves everything (11).
Schema & documentation goose +26
Emdash 55
Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).
goose 81
Recipes have a documented schema with typed parameters and a response JSON Schema for structured output, and config and environment variables are documented in tables, but we found no OpenAPI spec for the goose server (18). llms.txt at goose-docs.ai, which now covers goose and the goose Development Kit (10). Permission modes come with a best-for column and the security pages say what each guard catches and misses (15). Recipe parameters take types and requirement levels, and retries take typed success checks (12). Many tutorials, a headless guide that tells scripts to check exit codes, and a known-issues page (13). Dated, written notes on every GitHub release, with no changelog file (13).
Reliability goose +22
Emdash 55
Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.
goose 77
Read as a local package, which is how the 1 October dossier read it. Desktop builds and a CLI for macOS, Linux and Windows (a Windows NSIS installer from 1.56.0), Homebrew casks, a download script on GitHub releases, an npm package that installs the binary (@aaif/goose-acp) and a GHCR image, with Rust 1.94.1 as the minimum for source builds (20). A CI workflow runs on every push to main, with cargo-deny, cargo-machete, MCP and tool-call conformance and an OpenSSF Scorecard job beside it. The Actions page loaded on 1 October showed only passing runs from March 2026, and GitHub pages refused our requests on 6 and 17 October and 1 November, so the current state is unconfirmed (18). 266 to 271 open issues on 1 October, many from that week with no reply, including open reports that the default mode approves every tool call (#12567) and that schedules can overwrite each other (#12613), per the 1 October check, not re-read since (15). Weekly minor releases with notes written by a release-notes workflow whose sections are Features, Bug Fixes, Improvements and Documentation, with no breaking-change section. 1.55.0 dropped background subagents (delegate(..., async: true) and GOOSE_MAX_BACKGROUND_TASKS) and 1.57.0 dropped the developer tools that delegated file reads and terminal commands to an ACP editor, each edited out of the code and docs with no earlier notice (9). 1.57, stable (15).
Maintenance & community goose +16
Emdash 70
v1.2.11 on 6 November 2026 (30). v1.2.9, v1.2.10 and v1.2.11 within two weeks (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current installers and Homebrew cask (15). Release workflows, no test CI (5). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70.
goose 86
v1.57.0 tagged on 27 October 2026, after v1.56.0 on 22 October (30). 13 releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 1.46.0 (11 August) to 1.57.0, about one a week, plus GDK alpha tags (20). Issues move through a public board with Inbox and Ready columns and some new reports get a label within a day, but many of the week's reports had no reply on 1 October, and pull requests that don't implement a Ready issue are closed, per the 1 October check, not re-read since (15). Desktop, CLI, npm and GHCR builds ship from the same tag, and Python and Java SDK builds run in CI (13). cargo-deny, cargo-machete, Dependabot and Scorecard workflows, every GitHub Action pinned to a commit SHA since 29 September, and jsonwebtoken removed on 26 October to stop ignoring its cargo-deny advisories, with the current CI state unconfirmed (8).
Transparency & trust goose +13
Emdash 54
Apache 2.0 (30). A telemetry page on the docs site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.
goose 67
Apache-2.0 (30). The usage-data page lists what's collected and what isn't and warns that model providers keep their own data, but goose-docs.ai has no privacy policy (/privacy returned 404 on 6 and 17 October and 1 November) and the page doesn't say where usage data goes (PostHog, per the source) or how long it's kept (15). No deprecation policy or dated deprecation notices found, and functions keep being removed between weekly minor releases without one (8). Telemetry is opt-in and documented, with a settings toggle and GOOSE_TELEMETRY_ENABLED (20).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Emdash | goose | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 55 | 77 | goose +22 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 55 | 81 | goose +26 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 55 | 82 | goose +27 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 38 | 77 | goose +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 70 | 86 | goose +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 54 | 67 | goose +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| Total | D 53.9/100 | BB 71.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Emdash | goose |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | General Action, Inc. | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-27 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Popularity | none | 55k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |
How the scores have moved
Emdash
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Emdash
A mature open-source app for parallel coding agents in Git worktrees, with issue intake from a dozen trackers and remote machines over SSH. Telemetry is on unless you turn it off, and no test workflow was found in the repository.
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
Emdash
- Launch with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false if you don't want telemetry
- Use the SSH mode to keep agents on a remote machine
goose
- Set
GOOSE_MODE=smart_approveorapprovebefore a run. The default approves everything, and the first-run prompt preselects Auto - Pass
--max-turnswith a real limit. The default is 1000 - Set
SECURITY_PROMPT_ENABLED=truewhen the task reads web pages or untrusted repositories - Use
--output-format jsonand--no-sessionin CI, and check the exit code - Pin the goose version in CI. Minor releases have removed functions, such as
delegate(..., async: true)in 1.55.0, without notice
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Emdash or goose?
goose scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Emdash's 53.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Are Emdash and goose open source?
Yes. Emdash is open source (Apache-2.0). goose is open source (Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with Emdash or goose
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- Pi vs Emdash
- Pi vs goose
- Emdash vs Gemini CLI
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- Emdash vs Harness²
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- Emdash vs mini-swe-agent
- Emdash vs MiniMax Code
- Emdash vs Mistral Vibe CLI
- Emdash vs Muse Code
- Emdash vs OpenAI Agents API
- Emdash vs OpenAI Codex
- Emdash vs OpenCode
- Emdash vs OpenHands
- Emdash vs OpenMausBot
- Emdash vs Orca
- Emdash vs Paseo
- Emdash vs Prime Agent
- Emdash vs Qoder CLI
- Emdash vs Qwen Code
- Emdash vs Mirror CLI
- Emdash vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Emdash vs Sculptor
- Emdash vs T3 Code
- Emdash vs Traycer
- Emdash vs Unstoppable
- Emdash vs Verdent
- Emdash vs Vibe-Trading
- Emdash vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Gemini CLI vs goose
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs goose
- goose vs Harness²
- goose vs HarnessRouter
- goose vs Jules
- goose vs Junie CLI
- goose vs Kilo Code CLI
- goose vs Kimi Code CLI
- goose vs Kiro CLI
- goose vs Letta
- goose vs mini-swe-agent
- goose vs MiniMax Code
- goose vs Mistral Vibe CLI
- goose vs Muse Code
- goose vs OpenAI Agents API
- goose vs OpenAI Codex
- goose vs OpenCode
- goose vs OpenHands
- goose vs OpenMausBot
- goose vs Orca
- goose vs Paseo
- goose vs Prime Agent
- goose vs Qoder CLI
- goose vs Qwen Code
- goose vs Mirror CLI
- goose vs Rovo Dev CLI
- goose vs Sculptor
- goose vs T3 Code
- goose vs Traycer
- goose vs Unstoppable
- goose vs Verdent
- goose vs Vibe-Trading
- goose vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Clawboo vs Emdash
- Clawboo vs goose
- CLI Manager vs Emdash
- CLI Manager vs goose
- Emdash vs Harness
- Emdash vs Paperclip
- Emdash vs Parallax
- goose vs Harness
- goose vs Paperclip
- goose vs Parallax
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/emdash-vs-goose.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/emdash.json·/api/v1/tools/goose.json - From a terminal
anchor compare emdash goose(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "emdash", "b": "goose"}at/mcp, no key