Goose

  • ID: goose
  • Store (current, macOS and Linux): $XDG_DATA_HOME/goose/sessions/sessions.db, default ~/.local/share/goose/sessions/sessions.db (SQLite, Goose >= 1.10.0). goose resolves its directories through etcetera's choose_app_strategy, which is XDG on macOS too; the Apple layout is choose_native_strategy (crates/goose/src/config/paths.rs)
  • Store (current, Windows): %APPDATA%\Block\goose\data\sessions\sessions.db
  • Store (legacy): sessions/*.jsonl in any of those roots (pre-1.10.0; files remain on disk after migration), plus ~/.local/share/Block/goose, ~/Library/Application Support/Block/goose and ~/Library/Application Support/goose
  • Relocation: GOOSE_PATH_ROOT moves config, data and state together, and is then the whole answer
  • Read override: DEJA_GOOSE_ROOT (takes precedence for reads); DEJA_GOOSE_DB for the SQLite path
  • Format: legacy JSONL (metadata header + message records) and SQLite relational store

Legacy JSONL: the first line is session metadata (description, id, working_dir,

created_at, updated_at); subsequent lines are messages with role, created (unix

seconds) and content blocks (type: text only for v1). SQLite: sessions joined to

messages on session_id; content_json is a JSON array of content blocks.

  • MCP: deja install goose adds the server as an extension in

~/.config/goose/config.yaml ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/goose,

%APPDATA%\Block\goose\config on Windows, $GOOSE_PATH_ROOT/config when

that is set).

  • Skill: the shared ~/.agents/skills/deja-history/SKILL.md.
  • Command: Goose declares commands in the same config rather than a

commands directory, so /deja is a recipe entry there.

  • Auto-recall: SessionStart and UserPromptSubmit hooks in

~/.agents/plugins/deja/hooks/hooks.json ($GOOSE_PATH_ROOT/.agents/plugins

when that is set). Goose discards what a hook prints,

so neither answers on stdout: they write the file Goose re-reads, which is a

marked block in ~/.config/goose/AGENTS.md at session start and the MOIM file

per prompt. .goosehints is where the block used to go; what deja wrote there

is cleared, and anything else in that file is left alone.

  • Resume: goose session --resume --session-id <id>. A session no longer in sessions.db (deleted in goose) is refused with a pointer to deja show.
  • Handoff: exec, goose run -t.
  • Prerequisite: the per-prompt half needs GOOSE_MOIM_MESSAGE_FILE, which

the deja goose wrapper sets.

What the other nine hook events can carry

Goose has eleven hook events (twelve on 1.49, which adds PreToolUseResult).

deja wires two. The rest were measured on a stand — isolated HOME, a recording

endpoint, a hook on every event writing a marker into the MOIM file and a

{"additionalContext": …} on stdout — on 1.46.0 and again on 1.49.0, with the

same result both times.

One turn whose shell command exits 3 fires SessionStart, UserPromptSubmit,

PreToolUse, BeforeShellExecution, PostToolUseFailure, Stop and

SessionEnd; PostToolUse and AfterShellExecution do not fire on a failure.

Every tool event carries the same four fields — event, session_id,

tool_name, tool_input, plus working_dir — and no output, no error text and

no exit code. Stop carries last_assistant_message.

Two things follow, and they are why the other nine stay unwired:

  • Hook stdout is discarded. No marker written there appeared in any recorded

request, on either version.

  • The MOIM file is re-read at each prompt, not between tool calls. A marker

written by PostToolUseFailure is absent from the request Goose sends

straight after the failure and present in the next prompt's. So a fix pair

wired to that event would arrive one turn late, where the prompt hook already

speaks — and with no error in the payload to key it on (#2952, #2956).

Requested in #255.

Last verified: 2026-09-07

deja reads this format and thirty-seven others, and turns what it finds into memory your agents can search. See the harness matrix for what is wired where, or install it and search your own history.

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