goose

Goose is an open-source AI agent that connects language models to tools and actions. Block released it to the public in January 2025.

I worked on the interface through launch and as the product grew. This covers selected work from the January 2025 launch through the post-launch refresh.

We had two and a half weeks to prepare Goose’s desktop interface for public release. The app was engineering-led and volunteer-driven. It worked, but much of the frontend was AI-generated and needed cleanup.

With that short window, I worked directly in the code alongside engineering. I integrated Tailwind to make iteration easier and brought the interface closer to Block’s visual style.

I reorganized settings so people could find frequently used controls and understand what they did. I also added onboarding with provider selection.

We launched on January 28, 2025. Goose reached the top of GitHub’s trending page, and we continued developing the app with the open-source community.

As contributors added features, the navigation became crowded. I widened the window and introduced a sidebar, then built out session history and search. People also wanted to group sessions into projects. I worked across the interface and Rust backend to add that.

Some explorations didn’t make the cut. I tried left-aligned user messages and message threading, expecting the terminal-like alignment to feel familiar. Informal testing suggested otherwise: the alignment threw people off.

Explore Goose