Use Goose with SaladCloud

Learn how to use Goose, an open-source extensible AI agent by Block, with a self-hosted model on SaladCloud.

Last Updated: May 18, 2026

Introduction

Goose is an open-source, extensible AI agent by Block (the company behind Square and Cash App). It goes beyond code suggestions - Goose can install packages, execute commands, edit files, run tests, and interact with external services via MCP. It is available as both a CLI and a desktop app, and supports fully custom OpenAI-compatible providers via a JSON config file.

Goose works with SaladCloud in two ways:

• Salad AI Gateway - no infrastructure to deploy or manage. Sign up for access, point Goose at a single shared endpoint, and use your Salad API key directly. Currently in closed beta with monthly flat-rate access.
• Self-hosted model - deploy your own SaladCloud container group for full control over the model, hardware, and configuration. Still very easy to set up and use.

Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have:

• A SaladCloud account with an active LLM deployment
• Linux, macOS, or Windows (WSL2)

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Choose Your Backend

Salad AI Gateway

Salad AI Gateway is the fastest way to get started - no container groups to deploy, no cold starts to wait for.

1. Sign up for early access at salad.com/ai-gateway.
2. Once approved, find your Salad API key in the portal.

Available models:

Model	Description
qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B - best for agentic tasks, coding, and complex reasoning
qwen3.6-27b	Qwen 3.6 27B - strong balance of capability and speed
qwen3.5-9b	Qwen 3.5 9B - fastest response times, suited for lighter tasks

Self-Hosted on SaladCloud

First, deploy an OpenAI-compatible LLM server on SaladCloud.

• Go to the SaladCloud portal and create an account if you do not already have one.
• Create an organization or choose an existing one, then click “Deploy a container group”.
• Select an LLM recipe. The Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (llama.cpp) recipe is a strong choice for general-purpose agentic tasks. On the recipe page, provide a name and deploy - the rest is preconfigured with recommended settings.
• Once deployed, your endpoint will be live and serving an OpenAI-compatible API.

Available recipes:

Ready-to-deploy recipes (best for less technical users):

• qwen3.6-35B-A3B - A powerful Mixture of Experts model optimized for instruction-following tasks.
• qwen3.5-9b-llama-cpp - Optimized for Qwen3.5 9B model.

Recipes for custom deployments (best for advanced users):

• llama.cpp - Supports GGUF models
• sglang - High-performance inference
• vllm - Popular LLM serving framework
• ollama - Simple model management
• tgi - Hugging Face Text Generation Inference server

After deployment, note your:

• API endpoint URL (e.g., https://your-endpoint.salad.cloud)
• API key (from your SaladCloud organization settings, if you enabled authentication)

Step 2: Install Goose

For Desktop App instructions scroll to the bottom of this page.

Linux / macOS / WSL2:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/block/goose/releases/download/stable/download_cli.sh | bash

Or install via Homebrew on macOS:

brew install block-goose-cli

Verify the installation:

goose --version

Step 3: Configure a Custom Provider

The first time you run Goose it launches an onboarding wizard. When asked “What would you like to configure?”, follow these steps:

1. Select Custom Provider → Add a custom provider → OpenAI Compatible
2. Enter a name for the provider (e.g., saladcloud)
3. Fill in the endpoint and credentials based on your chosen backend:

Salad AI Gateway

• API URL: https://ai.salad.cloud/v1/chat/completions
• API key: your Salad API key
• Available models: e.g. qwen3.6-35b-a3b
• When asked “Does this provider require custom headers?”, select No

After adding the provider, run goose configure and under Configure Providers select your new custom provider.

Alternatively, create or edit ~/.config/goose/custom_providers/saladcloud.json:

{
  "name": "custom_saladcloud_gateway",
  "engine": "openai",
  "display_name": "SaladCloud AI Gateway",
  "description": "Salad AI Gateway",
  "api_key_env": "SALAD_API_KEY",
  "base_url": "https://ai.salad.cloud/v1",
  "models": [
    { "name": "qwen3.6-35b-a3b", "context_limit": 262144 },
    { "name": "qwen3.6-27b", "context_limit": 262144 },
    { "name": "qwen3.5-9b", "context_limit": 262144 }
  ],
  "supports_streaming": true,
  "requires_auth": true
}

Then set the environment variable:

export SALAD_API_KEY=your-salad-api-key

Self-Hosted on SaladCloud

• API URL: https://your-endpoint.salad.cloud/v1/chat/completions
• When prompted for an API key, enter any non-empty string (e.g., dummy), or indicate that authentication is not required (if it is, you will add the real key in the custom headers step)
• Enter the available models separated by commas (e.g., qwen3.6-35b-a3b)
• Set your streaming and other preferences
• When asked “Does this provider require custom headers?”, select Yes if your deployment requires authentication and add:
  • Header name: Salad-Api-Key
  • Header value: your SaladCloud API key

If your deployment does not require authentication, skip the custom headers step.

After adding the provider, run goose configure and under Configure Providers select your new custom provider.

Alternatively, you can create or edit the provider config file directly at ~/.config/goose/custom_providers/saladcloud.json:

{
  "name": "custom_saladcloud",
  "engine": "openai",
  "display_name": "SaladCloud",
  "description": "Custom SaladCloud provider",
  "api_key_env": "CUSTOM_SALADCLOUD_API_KEY",
  "base_url": "https://your-endpoint.salad.cloud/v1",
  "models": [
    {
      "name": "qwen3.6-35b-a3b",
      "context_limit": 262144
    }
  ],
  "headers": {
    "Salad-Api-Key": "your-salad-api-key"
  },
  "supports_streaming": true,
  "requires_auth": false
}

Step 4: Start Goose and Test the Connection

Start a Goose session:

goose

Test with a simple task:

“Create a hello world Python script and run it.”

If Goose creates and executes the file, your setup is complete.

Goose Desktop App

Goose also has a desktop app with the same capabilities as the CLI. See the Quick Start instructions for download links for your OS.

Download and run the app, then on the startup page:

Salad AI Gateway

1. Click Connect to a Provider 2. Click Add Custom Provider 3. Click Configure Manually and fill in: - Provider Type: OpenAI Compatible - Display Name: SaladCloud AI Gateway - API URL: https://ai.salad.cloud/v1/ - API Base Path: leave blank - Under Authentication, select This provider requires API Key and enter your Salad API key - Available Models: e.g. qwen3.6-35b-a3b, qwen3.6-27b, qwen3.5-9b 4. Click Create Provider and start using Goose

Self-Hosted on SaladCloud

1. Click Connect to a Provider 2. Click Add Custom Provider 3. Click Configure Manually and fill in: - Provider Type: OpenAI Compatible - Display Name: a name for the provider (e.g., SaladCloud) - API URL: your endpoint URL (e.g., https://your-endpoint.salad.cloud/v1/) - API Base Path: leave blank - Available Models: your model name (e.g., qwen3.6-35b-a3b) - Custom Headers: add Salad-Api-Key with your SaladCloud API key as the value (only if your deployment has authentication enabled) 4. Click Create Provider and start using Goose with your SaladCloud deployment

Model Recommendations

• Qwen 3.6-35B-A3B: Best for complex agentic tasks - install, execute, edit, and test workflows
• Qwen 3.5-9B: Suitable for lighter tasks and faster response times