# goose vs mini-swe-agent

> goose scores 73.9 (BB) to mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-mini-swe-agent
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-mini-swe-agent.md (~3,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-mini-swe-agent.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-mini-swe-agent.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-18

goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- goose: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #82 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/goose.json
- mini-swe-agent: grade C, 56.7/100, rank #698 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mini-swe-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mini-swe-agent.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### 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 70
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 69
- Security & auth, 77 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

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

### mini-swe-agent (C)

Good for: Benchmark runs, research baselines and RL or fine-tuning pipelines that want a minimal, readable agent with a linear trajectory, and for people who want to read every line of their harness.

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: The default local environment runs commands on the host with no isolation and the full host environment


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | goose | mini-swe-agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 70 | goose +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 58 | goose +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 69 | goose +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 56 | goose +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 49 | goose +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 51 | goose +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **73.9 · BB** | **56.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | goose | mini-swe-agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) | SWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-07-23 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 55k stars | 8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

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

**mini-swe-agent.** A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

## Before you call either

### goose

1. Set `GOOSE_MODE=smart_approve` or `approve` before a run. The default approves everything, and the first-run prompt preselects Auto
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

### mini-swe-agent

1. Run with `-y --exit-immediately` for unattended use. Without `--exit-immediately` it waits for input when the agent finishes
2. Set `MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true` and `MSWEA_MODEL_NAME` first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
3. Read `info.exit_status` in the `-o` trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
4. For untrusted repositories use `-c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>`. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, goose or mini-swe-agent?

goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are goose and mini-swe-agent open source?

Yes. goose is open source (Apache-2.0). mini-swe-agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with goose or mini-swe-agent

- [Agent Zero vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.md)
- [Agent Zero vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Aider vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose.md)
- [Aider vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Amp vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-goose.md)
- [Amp vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-goose.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Claude Code vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-goose.md)
- [Claude Code vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Cline vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-goose.md)
- [Cline vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Crush vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-goose.md)
- [Crush vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-goose.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Devin vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-goose.md)
- [Devin vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Droid CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Droid CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Pi vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-goose.md)
- [Pi vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [goose vs Harness²](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-harness2.md)
- [goose vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [goose vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-jules.md)
- [goose vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-junie.md)
- [goose vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [goose vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [goose vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [goose vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [goose vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-muse-code.md)
- [goose vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [goose vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-opencode.md)
- [goose vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-openhands.md)
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- [goose vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-qoder-cli.md)
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- [goose vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [goose vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [goose vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-warp.md)
- [Harness² vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Jules vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Junie CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/junie-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Kilo Code CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Kimi Code CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kimi-code-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Kiro CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-muse-code.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-opencode.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openhands.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-warp.md)
- [CLI Manager vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-goose.md)
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- [goose vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-paperclip.md)
- [goose vs Parallax](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-parallax-agents.md)

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