Run an Autonomous AI Coding Agent in Your Terminal That Works With Claude, GPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek — No Lock-In

An open-source terminal agent with zero model lock-in

By the end of this guide, you'll have Goose running autonomously in your terminal — reading your codebase, writing and refactoring code, running tests, and switching between Claude, GPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek in a single command.

Who This Is For

  • You're running AI-assisted development and don't want your entire workflow tied to one model provider

  • You want an agent that reads your actual files and executes real development tasks — not just generates code to copy-paste manually

  • You're evaluating multiple AI models and want to switch between them without rebuilding your setup each time

  • You want coding automation that runs locally — no cloud dependency, no data leaving your machine beyond the API call

  • You're already using Claude Code or similar tools and want an open-source alternative with full model flexibility

What You'll Build

A locally installed Goose agent running in your terminal with:

  • One-command installation via npm

  • Model switching between Claude, GPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek via a single environment variable

  • Plain English task execution: directory scanning, code refactoring, test running, deployment preparation

  • Zero dependency on any single AI provider — swap models without changing your workflow

Deployment pipeline: Terminal installation → API credential mapping → Plain English task input → Autonomous execution (file updates, code generation, test validation)

What You'll Need

  • A computer with terminal access (Mac, Linux, or Windows with WSL)

  • npm installed (comes with Node.js — download at nodejs.org if not already installed)

  • An active API key for at least one foundation model:

    • Claude: Anthropic API key

    • GPT: OpenAI API key

    • Gemini: Google AI API key

    • DeepSeek: DeepSeek API key

  • An existing code repository or project directory to run the agent inside

Going Further

  • Add persistent memory across Goose sessions — Guide: Build a Free Persistent AI Memory System Using Claude Code and Obsidian (AI Agent)

  • Evaluate which model to use for which task type — Guide: How to Evaluate a New AI Model Before You Change Your Workflow (AI Agent)

  • Generate complete automation workflows from plain English — Guide: Generate and Sell Complete N8N Automation Workflows From a Single Prompt (No-Code Builds)