# goose vs Kilo Code CLI (slim)

> Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against goose's 73.9 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. goose leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do agent harness. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kilo-code-cli.md (~2,350 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kilo-code-cli.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kilo-code-cli
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against goose's 73.9 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. goose leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do agent harness.

- goose: BB 73.9, rank #80 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.min.md
- Kilo Code CLI: BB 75.4, rank #47 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kilo-code-cli.min.md
- goose, 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 Agent ergonomics, 82 against 72; Security & auth, 77 against 66; Payments & pricing, 60 against 50. Also No key needed to call it.
- Kilo Code CLI, good for Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 77; Schema & documentation, 90 against 81; Transparency & trust, 76 against 63.

| Category | goose | Kilo Code CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 77 | 85 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 82 | 72 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 77 | 66 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 76 |

| Fact (where they differ) | goose | Kilo Code CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) | Kilo Code Inc. |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-29 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 55k stars | 28k stars, 33k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |