Don't Panic: Goose

Goose is a coding agent that lives on your machine and is willing to read files, change them, and run commands after you ask. That makes it more useful than a box that suggests the next few characters, and more demanding than one too. The important unit is not the sentence it writes. It is the sequence it starts: request, inspection, proposed action, review, and another request when the result needs work.

The familiar pre-Goose routine is a person opening files, running a command, changing code, and discovering what the test suite thinks of the plan. Goose can carry part of that routine across a session. It remembers the work it has inspected and the request it is pursuing, which is handy because software projects are rarely improved by one isolated clever line. It is less handy if the request is vague, because the agent has no ceremonial bell that rings when a human decision has been smuggled into a prompt.

Interactive mode is the close-up version: the terminal shows proposed changes and commands while you review them. Headless mode removes that terminal interface for scripted work and CI pipelines. The machinery lives in the Goose configuration directory, where provider settings and tool policies decide what the agent can connect to. .goosehints adds project conventions, build commands, and architectural guidance from the project root down to the current directory, so the agent has fewer excuses to mistake local habits for archaeology.

Extensions are where Goose stops being only a code reader. Built-in extensions handle development work; stdio extensions run locally; remote extensions connect over HTTP through MCP. That expands what a task can reach, which is excellent news right up to the moment it becomes a reason to stop reading approval prompts. Approval policies and restricted shell commands exist because direct filesystem and shell access are capabilities, not decorations on a chat window.

Read the Introduction when you need the full map of sessions, modes, configuration, extensions, and security choices. Use the Slides for the short route through their relationships. Keep the Cheatsheet nearby when the question is a command, a configuration location, or an extension type. The Quiz tests whether the mental model has survived contact with four plausible answers. Then try a small, inspectable task, review what changes, and retain ownership of the code. The goose is helpful. It does not become responsible for the branch merely by standing near it.