# goose vs Rovo Dev CLI

> goose scores 73.9 (BB) to Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- 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 Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Rovo Dev CLI: grade E, 43.9/100, rank #1010 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rovo-dev-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.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 35
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 53
- Security & auth, 77 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 86 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.5 against 2.0 out of 5

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

### Rovo Dev CLI (E)

Good for: Teams already on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket who want the agent to read and update work items and pages from the terminal or a pipeline.

Watch for: Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | goose | Rovo Dev CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 35 | goose +42 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 45 | goose +36 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 53 | goose +29 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 77 | 48 | goose +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 15 | goose +45 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 86 | 61 | goose +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 61 | goose +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.9 · BB** | **43.9 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | goose | Rovo Dev CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) | Atlassian |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary, under the Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the Atlassian AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026). No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 55k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2/5 (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.

**Rovo Dev CLI.** Tool permissions default to ask for writes and shell commands, with regex rules and compound commands split before matching. It needs a paid Atlassian plan with Rovo Dev, has no customer sandbox or public changelog, and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life as the CLI moves to the Rovo CLI.

## 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

### Rovo Dev CLI

1. Pass the instruction as an argument to `acli rovodev run` for a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented
2. Use `acli rovodev serve <port>` and stream `/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=true` to approve or deny each tool call over HTTP
3. Add `--worktree <name>` so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in `.rovodev/worktrees/<name>`
4. Set `"enable_instructions": false` on MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default
5. Check `/usage` before long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, goose or Rovo Dev CLI?

goose scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Are goose and Rovo Dev CLI open source?

goose is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Rovo Dev CLI.


## For agents

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

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