# goose vs Verdent (slim)

> goose scores 71.3 (BB) to Verdent's 39.7 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-verdent.md (~6,450 tokens) · this version ~3,030 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-verdent.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-verdent
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

goose scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Verdent's 39.7 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- goose: BB 71.3, rank #165 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.min.md
- Verdent: E 39.7, rank #1317 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/verdent.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 Reliability, 77 against 43; Schema & documentation, 81 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 82 against 35; Security & auth, 77 against 33; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20; Maintenance & community, 86 against 61; Transparency & trust, 67 against 55. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.
- Verdent, good for A person who wants a desktop app to plan and run several coding tasks at once, possibly on their own Claude Code or Codex.

| Category | goose | Verdent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 77 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 55 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 82 | 35 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 77 | 33 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 86 | 61 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 67 | 55 |

| Fact (where they differ) | goose | Verdent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) | Verdent AI, Inc. |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary. The terms of use from Verdent AI, Inc. forbid reverse engineering or copying any component, and no source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-27 | 2026-10-29 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-26 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 55k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Agent ergonomics, goose +47: 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).); Verdent 35 (Harness reading. MCP servers per project or globally, subagents, skills and rules, but no per-tool disabling or deferred loading found (10). No output-size, turn-limit or budget controls for a run were found beyond credit balances (5). No exit codes or error format, since there is no headless mode (3). Parallel workers in git worktrees and a review column make runs reviewable and reversible, with no resume by ID documented (10). No CLI, API or SDK. A pipeline can only reach Manager through a paired Telegram, Slack or Feishu bot (7). 10+5+3+10+7 = 35.)
- Security & auth, goose +44: 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).); Verdent 33 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Conversation history and tool results go to Verdent's US servers and on to Azure, Bedrock or Vertex, with zero data retention stated for Vertex and Bedrock only. Event logging to log.verdent.ai has no documented opt-out. BYOA keys stay on the machine (10). Plan Mode is read-only, Agent Mode asks before destructive commands and edits outside scope, and workers are isolated by git worktree, but there is no sandbox or network control and the approval list isn't enumerated (9). No prompt-injection guidance found, while web search and fetch results enter the context (2). Usage history in the dashboard, no audit log found (5). A security page with a disclosure address and a five-day acknowledgement, SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 42001 being pursued rather than held, no security.txt and no bug bounty (7). 10+9+2+5+7 = 33.)
- Payments & pricing, goose +40: 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.); Verdent 20 (Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Verdent subscription the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices from $5 a month, top-up prices and the credit value of about $0.059 are public without a login (20). Free Mode and the free trial ended on 29 October 2026, so there is no free tier (0). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.)
- Reliability, goose +34: 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).); Verdent 43 (Local-package reading, as for the other closed-source harnesses. The desktop app installs from verdent.ai with macOS 11 or later and 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 stated, and the extension from the editor marketplaces, but not from a package registry (15). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker, every task runs through Verdent's servers, and no status page was found, so there is no readable record (5). A dated changelog by version, with the end of Free Mode called out in v2.18.0, but no breaking-change sections (8). 2.18.0, generally available (15). 15+0+5+8+15 = 43.)
- Schema & documentation, goose +26: 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).); Verdent 55 (Framework reading for a harness. No schema for settings or output, only mcp.json examples in the standard mcpServers shape (5). Every current docs page has a Markdown twin at the same path with .md, though no llms.txt (10). The docs say when to use Agent Mode or Plan Mode and what Plan Mode can't do, but the Agent Mode page lists the actions that need approval only as "certain tool executions" and "destructive operations" (12). Modes and BYOA agent types are enumerated, permissions are not (5). Examples on the MCP, BYOA and messaging pages, and a recovery page, with no error codes (8). Version numbers and a dated public changelog (15). The archived 1.0 docs are still served beside the current ones. 5+10+12+5+8+15 = 55.)
- Maintenance & community, goose +25: goose 86 (v1.57.0 tagged on 27 October 2026, after v1.56.0 on 22 October (30). 13 releases in the 90 days from 3 August, 1.46.0 (11 August) to 1.57.0, about one a week, plus GDK alpha tags (20). Issues move through a public board with Inbox and Ready columns and some new reports get a label within a day, but many of the week's reports had no reply on 1 October, and pull requests that don't implement a Ready issue are closed, per the 1 October check, not re-read since (15). Desktop, CLI, npm and GHCR builds ship from the same tag, and Python and Java SDK builds run in CI (13). cargo-deny, cargo-machete, Dependabot and Scorecard workflows, every GitHub Action pinned to a commit SHA since 29 September, and jsonwebtoken removed on 26 October to stop ignoring its cargo-deny advisories, with the current CI state unconfirmed (8).); Verdent 61 (Closed service. v2.18.0 on 29 October 2026, eight days before this check (30). More than three dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, among them 2.10.0 to 2.18.0 (20). A dated public changelog, a support address, Discord and a subreddit, with no public tracker to read reply times (8). No official SDK or MCP server to keep current (0). No public packages or CI to judge (3). 30+20+8+0+3 = 61.)