goose vs Orca

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).

Orca 43

Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.

goose 60

No payment protocol (0). Free and Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. It runs local models, including built-in local inference, with no signup.

Orca 40

Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.

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).

Orca 58

Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.

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).

Orca 65

Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).

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).

Orca 54

MIT (30). Privacy and telemetry docs on the site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.

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).

Orca 70

Harness reading. An orchestrator agent that splits work across workers in their own workspaces, chat or raw CLI, a browser and a CLI in one app (70).