Open source rarely wins at the start.

Instead, its strength tends to be a continued improvement over the long term, in a way that commercial software just can't sustain because it needs to show a return on investment.

I use OpenCode as my main CLI tool at this point, falling back to Claude Code and Codex as needed. It's really solid these days, highly recommend.

I use Claude Sonnet 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro Preview, and GPT 5/5-mini with great results on OC. I initially tried it so I could decouple from VS Code extensions while still using my Github Copilot plan like I had been with Roo Code/Kilo Code, but have branched out to also using it with the Claude Code backend and their free models as they come and go.

Definitely worth trying if you haven't picked it up recently.

I feel you and I also think this is a tough time. I routinely use Claude even though he typically ignores me ;) I'm also a maintainer of Goose and have been engaged since before the rust rewrite. I'll admit I don't get exactly what I want out of any agent. I also don't buy the "it is you" thing that is typical with Agents. We often need to know too many things and are defensive in how we act. I truly hope this is temporary.

ok back to the point. Block is not trying to sell a frontier model, or Goose at all. As an open source enthusiast, I like this model (no pun intended). Features go where the prominent site or key contributors want, vs a commercial agenda. To get more practical, it was goose folks themselves who put themsemselves out there in tbench.ai and remain in the top 10

https://www.tbench.ai/leaderboard/terminal-bench/2.0

Does this invalidate poor experience on use cases. no way. However, there's a lot of work being done by block folks to help teach and share practice and get things together. I'm always looking for pure local everything and Mic is also super keen on this, Today? well it is like watching someone type each character at a time while your laptop melts. I don't think this invalidates the long term, but it acknowledges the short term.

Next, Goose doesn't care about you in a specific way. Literally there is a Claude agent so you can swap out the goosey parts if you like. It is clunky and I'm personally looking into aligning that interop via Zed's ACP. I think like the combination of openness and not having any angle.. like not anti claude, literally give you a way to use it.. is telling.

This is a ramble and maybe a waste of your context, but I hope it colors some things and will get to see you around.

I did tried as well few months and also uninstalled. Application didn't at least back then have update feature and for each new release you had to reinstall again. UI experience was also very poor comparing to many other open source projects - would expect they at least hire some designer

Tried Goose, couldn't do anything. OpenCode is better. Mistral's Vibe too.

The OpenHands CLI has had some major improvements since v1: https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands

MIT license and model agnostic

I’d also keep a close eye on Toad which is launching this month:

https://willmcgugan.github.io/announcing-toad/

Goose was super jank when I last tried it. Not worth a look

No. It didn't get any better. To be honest, the only working agentic tool out there in Claude Code. All other tools seems to confuse the model and not help much. Also bugs are a real problem (with gemini cli, it's really pathetic). Not that Claude Code doesn't have dozens of issues but the bar in this niche is set really low.

Same here. Never heard of them before. But the more you look around on their site, feels more and more like some parody company. They seem to be into everything - bitcoin, blockchain, decentralized this, decentralized that, something called TBD, then Web5 (what even is that?)

https://blog.identity.foundation/block-contributes-to-dif/

https://tbd.website/

This company seems to be mocking itself.

> “Bitcoin is about access, not speculation. It’s designed to be open, fast, low-cost, and free from centralized control. It’s meant to empower people"

This is the most amazing paragraph I think I have ever read, pure gold!

Block is the new name for Square, also of CashApp.

The guy who created that page actually went on to found the Calm app, which has a multi billion dollar valuation now.

Yes it does feel a bit grift adjacent.

There's a reason why their CLI is the best, there is some magic sauce in there the other haven't copied yet.