AI Engineering: Advent of AI with goose Day 1
Source: Dev.to
Technology Required
- Goose CLI (command‑line tool, not the Desktop version)
When AI Saved the Winter Festival ❄️
It was December 1st, 10 PM. After completing an Agentic AI project, I jumped into the Winter Festival challenge. Madame Zelda’s fortune‑telling app crashed during the opening ceremonies, leaving a line of 50 people waiting for their winter prophecies.
Enter Goose CLI
This was my first time using the Goose CLI. The challenge was clear: generate winter fortunes with different mystical personalities and make them visually stunning.
The Tech Stack
- Goose CLI – Block’s AI‑powered command‑line assistant
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 – The LLM powering the assistant when I ran out of tokens
- Pure prompt engineering combined with my coding skills when needed
What I Built
I generated five completely different fortune personalities, each with a unique vibe:
- 😤 Grumpy Winter Fortune
- ⭐ Poetic Winter Fortune
- 🎄 Festive Silent Night Edition
- 😏 Sarcastic Winter Fortune
- 🌙 Mysterious Winter Fortune
The Process
The conversational nature of Goose CLI made it easy. I described what I wanted in a prompt, and Goose delivered each fortune with:
- ✨ Beautiful ASCII‑art borders
- 🎨 Strategic emoji placement
- 📝 Lucky activities section
- ⚠️ Unlucky items warnings
- 🎭 Distinct personality voice
Example Prompt (bash)
goose run "Generate a grumpy winter fortune with ASCII borders, emojis, and a lucky activities section."What I Learned & Reinforced
- Prompt engineering is an art
- AI personality tuning is powerful
- Speed matters in AI engineering
- CLI tools are underrated
My Technical Deep Dive
- Goose CLI acts as an intelligent wrapper around LLM APIs, maintaining context across commands.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 processes natural‑language instructions and generates structured, formatted text.
- Output streams directly to the terminal, handling complexity behind the scenes.
Real‑World Applications
The skills demonstrated apply to:
- Content and code generation at scale (marketing, social media)
- Personalization engines (customized messages for users)
- Creative writing assistance (authors, copywriters)
- Rapid prototyping (testing ideas before building full apps)
- Emergency content creation (e.g., festival crises)
The Results
I saved Madame Zelda’s tent and learned that AI engineering isn’t just about complex code—it’s also about communicating effectively with AI. Each fortune was unique, engaging, and ready for the festival.
What’s Next?
Day 1 of the Advent of AI challenge is complete. Tomorrow the complexity may ramp up, and I’m ready for it.
Getting Started with Goose CLI
- Install Goose CLI from the official site.
- Get free credits (use code:
ADVENTDAY1). - Run a prompt:
goose run "your creative prompt here"Watch the magic happen ✨
Final Thoughts
AI engineering is evolving beyond traditional coding. Tools like Goose CLI democratize AI—no need to be a machine‑learning expert to build something magical. All you need is creativity, clear communication, and a willingness to experiment.
Day 1: Complete. Crisis averted. Festival saved. Magical! 🔮❄️