Goose cheat sheet

Every command, flag and slash command for goose — Open-source agent (Rust) with recipes, MCP "extensions", and a matching desktop app. 14+ commands, verified July 2026.

Goose moved from Block → the Agentic AI Foundation — the repo is now aaif-goose/goose and docs live at goose-docs.ai. It is a compiled Rust binary: there is no pip / pipx / uv install.

Install

curl -fsSL https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/releases/download/stable/download_cli.sh | bash
brew install block-goose-cli            # Homebrew CLI
brew install --cask block-goose         # Desktop app

Start & run

goose session                        # new interactive session
goose session -n my-project          # named session
goose session --resume -n my-project # resume a named session
goose run -t "your prompt"           # headless: run one prompt, exit
goose run -i plan.md                 # run instructions from a file
goose configure                      # set providers, models, API keys

Key flags

Flag	What it does
`-t, --text "<prompt>"`	(run) headless prompt
`-i, --instructions <file>`	(run) instructions from a file / stdin
`-n, --name <name>`	Name the session
`-r, --resume`	Resume a session
`--with-extension "<cmd>"`	Attach a stdio MCP extension
`--provider` / `--model`	(run) override provider / model
`--output-format <fmt>`	`text` · `json` · `stream-json`

In-session slash commands

Command	What it does
`/mode <name>`	`auto` · `approve` · `smart_approve` · `chat`
`/plan <msg>` … `/endplan`	Enter / leave plan mode
`/compact`	Summarize / compact the conversation (this is "summarize")
`/clear`	Clear the chat history
`/builtin` · `/extension`	Enable built-in / add stdio extensions
`/recipe [path]`	Save the conversation as a recipe (`.yaml`)
`/prompts` · `/prompt`	List / run prompts

Config

# ~/.config/goose/config.yaml  (shared by CLI + Desktop)
GOOSE_PROVIDER: "anthropic"          # required
GOOSE_MODEL: "claude-4.5-sonnet"     # required
GOOSE_MODE: "smart_approve"          # auto | approve | chat | smart_approve
extensions:                          # extensions = MCP servers
  developer:
    type: builtin
    enabled: true

Common one-liners

goose session -n refactor-api
goose run -t "summarize the git diff and draft a commit message"
goose session --resume -n refactor-api
goose run --provider anthropic --model claude-4-sonnet \
          --output-format json -t "list open TODOs in ./src"