# Gemini CLI vs goose

> goose has a score of 73.9 (BB) against Gemini CLI's 72.3 (BB). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 27 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

goose has a score of 73.9 (BB) against Gemini CLI's 72.3 (BB). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 27 points.

- Gemini CLI: grade BB, 72.3/100, rank #72 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json
- goose: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #52 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/goose.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Gemini CLI for schema & documentation (+12), transparency & trust (+27).

Pick goose for reliability (+6), security & auth (+10), payments & pricing (+20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gemini CLI | goose | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 77 | goose +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 81 | Gemini CLI +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 82 | goose +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 77 | goose +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | goose +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 86 | Gemini CLI +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 63 | Gemini CLI +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **72.3 · BB** | **73.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gemini CLI | goose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google | 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 | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-23 |
| Popularity | 107k stars | 55k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Gemini CLI.** Apache-2.0, CI passing on main, and 583 open issues with priority labels. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.

**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

### Gemini CLI

1. Set `GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACE` to true only for trusted inputs in CI. Since 0.39.1 headless mode doesn't trust a folder on its own
2. Turn on the sandbox with `-s` or `tools.sandbox`, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network
3. Set `privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled` to false to stop usage statistics
4. Read the exit code. 42 is bad input and 53 is the turn limit
5. Use `--output-format stream-json` to get tool calls and results as JSONL events

### 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

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