The goose-api crate provides an HTTP API interface to Goose's AI capabilities, enabling integration with other services and applications. It is designed as a daemon that can be run in the background, offering the same core functionality as the Goose CLI but accessible over HTTP.

Installation

Prerequisites

Rust toolchain (cargo, rustc)
Goose dependencies

Building

# Navigate to the goose-api directory
cd crates/goose-api

# Build the project
cargo build

# For a production-optimized build
cargo build --release

Configuration

Goose API supports configuration via environment variables and configuration files. The precedence order is:

Environment variables (highest priority)
Goose CLI configuration file (usually ~/.config/goose/config.yaml) if it exists
config file shipped with the crate
Default values (lowest priority)

Configuration File

If no CLI configuration file is found, goose-api looks for a config file in its crate directory. This file has no extension and can be JSON, YAML, TOML, etc. The config crate will detect the format automatically.

Example config file (YAML format):

# API server configuration
host: 127.0.0.1
port: 8080
api_key: your_secure_api_key

# Provider configuration
provider: openai
model: gpt-4o

Environment Variables

All configurations can be set using environment variables prefixed with GOOSE_API_.

# API server configuration
export GOOSE_API_HOST=0.0.0.0
export GOOSE_API_PORT=8080
export GOOSE_API_KEY=your_secure_api_key

# Provider configuration
export GOOSE_API_PROVIDER=openai
export GOOSE_API_MODEL=gpt-4o

# Provider-specific credentials (based on provider requirements)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key
# etc.

API Authentication

All API endpoints require authentication using an API key. The key should be provided in the x-api-key header.

Example:

x-api-key: your_secure_api_key

Running the Server

# Run the server in development mode
cargo run

# Run the compiled binary directly
./target/debug/goose-api

# For production (with optimizations)
./target/release/goose-api

By default, the server runs on 127.0.0.1:8080. You can modify this using configuration options.

API Endpoints

1. Start a Session

Endpoint: POST /session/start

Description: Initiates a new session with Goose, providing an initial prompt.

Request:

Headers:
- Content-Type: application/json
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]
Body:

{
  "prompt": "Your instruction to Goose"
}

Response:

{
  "message": "Session started with prompt: Your instruction to Goose",
  "status": "success"
}

2. Reply to a Session

Endpoint: POST /session/reply

Description: Sends a follow-up message to an existing session.

Request:

Headers:
- Content-Type: application/json
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]
Body:

{
  "prompt": "Your follow-up instruction"
}

Response:

{
  "message": "Reply: Response from Goose",
  "status": "success"
}

3. List Extensions

Endpoint: GET /extensions/list

Description: Returns a list of available extensions.

Request:

Headers:
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]

Response:

{
  "extensions": ["extension1", "extension2", "extension3"]
}

4. Add Extension

Endpoint: POST /extensions/add

Description: Installs or enables an extension.

Request:

Headers:
- Content-Type: application/json
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]
Body (example):

{
  "type": "builtin",
  "name": "mcp_say"
}

Response:

{
  "error": false,
  "message": null
}

5. Remove Extension

Endpoint: POST /extensions/remove

Description: Removes or disables an extension by name.

Request:

Headers:
- Content-Type: application/json
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]
Body:

"mcp_say"

Response:

{
  "error": false,
  "message": null
}

6. Get Provider Configuration

Endpoint: GET /provider/config

Description: Returns the current provider configuration.

Request:

Headers:
- x-api-key: [your-api-key]

Response:

{
  "provider": "openai",
  "model": "gpt-4o"
}

Session Management

Sessions created via the API are stored in the same location as the CLI (~/.local/share/goose/sessions on most platforms). Each session is saved to a <session_id>.jsonl file. You can resume or inspect these sessions with the CLI by providing the session ID returned from the API.

Examples

Using cURL

# Start a session
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/session/start \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key" \
  -d '{"prompt": "Create a Python function to generate Fibonacci numbers"}'

# Reply to an ongoing session
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/session/reply \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key" \
  -d '{"prompt": "Add documentation to this function"}'

# List extensions
curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/extensions/list \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key"

# Add an extension
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/extensions/add \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key" \
  -d '{"type": "builtin", "name": "mcp_say"}'

# Remove an extension
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/extensions/remove \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key" \
  -d '"mcp_say"'

# Get provider configuration
curl -X GET http://localhost:8080/provider/config \
  -H "x-api-key: your_secure_api_key"

Using Python

import requests

API_URL = "http://localhost:8080"
API_KEY = "your_secure_api_key"
HEADERS = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "x-api-key": API_KEY
}

# Start a session
response = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/session/start", 
    headers=HEADERS, 
    json={"prompt": "Create a Python function to generate Fibonacci numbers"}
)
print(response.json())

# Reply to an ongoing session
response = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/session/reply", 
    headers=HEADERS, 
    json={"prompt": "Add documentation to this function"}
)
print(response.json())

# List extensions
response = requests.get(f"{API_URL}/extensions/list", headers=HEADERS)
print(response.json())

# Add an extension
response = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/extensions/add",
    headers=HEADERS,
    json={"type": "builtin", "name": "mcp_say"}
)
print(response.json())

# Remove an extension
response = requests.post(
    f"{API_URL}/extensions/remove",
    headers=HEADERS,
    json="mcp_say"
)
print(response.json())

# Get provider configuration
response = requests.get(f"{API_URL}/provider/config", headers=HEADERS)
print(response.json())

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

API Key Authentication Failure:
Ensure the key in your request header matches the configured API key.
Provider Configuration Issues:
Make sure you've set the necessary environment variables for your chosen provider.
Missing Required Keys:
Check the server logs for messages about missing required provider configuration keys.

Implementation Status (vs. Implementation Plan)

The current implementation includes the following features from the implementation plan:

✅ Step 1-2: Created goose-api crate with necessary dependencies
✅ Step 3-4: Defined API endpoints with request/response structures
✅ Step 5: Integration with goose core functionality
✅ Step 6: Configuration via environment variables and config file
✅ Step 9: API Key authentication

🟡 Step 7: Extension loading mechanism (partial implementation)
🟡 Step 8: MCP support (partial implementation)
✅ Step 10: Documentation ✅ Step 11: Tests

Running Tests

Run all unit and integration tests with:

cargo test

This command executes the entire workspace test suite. To test a single crate, use cargo test -p <crate>.

Future Work

Extend session management capabilities
Add more comprehensive error handling
Expand unit and integration tests
Complete MCP integration
Add metrics and monitoring
Add OpenAPI documentation generation