# Aider vs dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) (slim)

> Aider scores 47.1 (D) to dsh-superagent's 42.1 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-superagent.md (~6,150 tokens) · this version ~2,830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-superagent.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-superagent
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-01
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Aider scores 47.1 (D) on agent readiness against dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)'s 42.1 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do agent harnesses.

- Aider: D 47.1, rank #1023 of 1251 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.min.md
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek): E 42.1, rank #1108 of 1251 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-superagent.min.md
- Aider, good for A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model. Ahead on Reliability, 54 against 15; Security & auth, 59 against 33; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Transparency & trust, 65 against 52. Also No key needed to call it.
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek), good for Teams on github.com that want a DeepSeek Harness agent to turn allowed people's issue requests into pull requests, run on an isolated machine or OS account. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 61 against 56; Maintenance & community, 34 against 13. Also No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 8 points for them.

| Category | Aider | dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 54 | 15 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 56 | 61 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 67 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 59 | 33 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 13 | 34 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Aider | dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | DeepSeek |
| Auth | None | Token |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-10-31 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-20 |
| Popularity | 49k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Aider +39: Aider 54 (Read as a local package. aider-chat on PyPI, but the latest release (0.86.2) requires Python below 3.13, while main has moved on (18). The Ubuntu test workflow passed on every main run we loaded, the last on the 22 May 2026 merge, and a Windows workflow sits beside it (25). About 1,300 to 1,400 open issues and 512 open pull requests, with recent ones unlabelled and no maintainer reply we could see, among them uncaught exceptions (#5473, #5466) (5). HISTORY.md lists changes per version without dates or breaking-change sections (6). 0.86, pre-1.0, and classed 4 - Beta on PyPI (0).); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 15 (Local-package reading, since it runs as a DSH bundle on the operator's machine. Not published to npm (`private: true` in package.json, and the registry has no `dsh-superagent`). It installs from a git clone with `pnpm install && pnpm build` on top of `@deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-rc.3`, with Node 22.19+ or 24+, git 2.32+, Python 3.8+, tmux and gh 2.48+ stated, so half credit (10). A vitest suite of about 25 spec files is listed in docs/007, and `pnpm check` runs the typecheck, tests and build. Two spec files were read on raw.githubusercontent.com. No CI workflow was found at five common paths under .github/workflows, and the directory couldn't be listed (5). Open issues couldn't be read, because github.com and api.github.com weren't reachable from our network. Unchecked, so scored absent (0). Version 0.1.0 with no tag, release or changelog found, so no semver record (0). A research prototype, not stable (0).)
- Security & auth, Aider +26: Aider 59 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for all five harnesses in this batch. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Analytics are opt-in, offered to a random 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local event log (30). Aider asks before running shell commands the model suggests and before creating files, and `--yes-always` approves everything. Edits apply without asking but each lands in a git commit. A `.aider.conf.yml` in a cloned repository can run `test-cmd` or `lint-cmd` through a shell without asking (CVE-2026-85674), and there's no sandbox (9). URLs in a message trigger an offer to scrape them into the chat, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (3). Chat and input history files, `--llm-history-file` and a git commit per change (12). No SECURITY.md in the repository, no advisories published, and the open CVE report has a reply only from a contributor (5).); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 33 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The `superagent` profile is created from DSH's Web template, and DSH documents that shipped profiles mount `session-log-deepseek`, enabled by default, which adds the session log to each official DeepSeek API request, up to 8 MiB. dsh-superagent's docs don't mention it, and its Sessions read issue, pull request and chat text and the repository. Setup and worker shells drop variables named KEY, PASSWORD, SECRET or TOKEN, and `GH_TOKEN` and `GITHUB_TOKEN` are removed from git (8). Both presets run `danger-full-access` without approval as the operator's OS user. docs/006 says the account wrappers don't isolate the process, a worker can run programs by path and read the operator's home directory, and recommends a dedicated OS account. The gate, `observe` default, blocked commands and no auto-merge as the agent account narrow what it does, not what it can do (6). docs/002 says messages, comments and quoted documents are inputs to a decision and can't change allowed lists, rules or Mandates, bots can never make explicit requests, and prompt edits don't change the gate. Workers with full access still read untrusted Thread text, and no further guidance on that was found (7). Decisions are recorded with reasons, Ticket details show the Trigger, Decision, scope and Policy version, the host records the prompt revisions each Session used, and every GitHub message starts with an automated-agent line by default (12). No SECURITY.md (404 at the root and in .github), no security.txt on www.deepseek.com (404), no bug bounty or advisory found. NVD has no record for the prototype. The CVEs against DSH itself are on the deepseek-harness listing (0).)
- Maintenance & community, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) +21: Aider 13 (0.86.2 on 2026-02-12, 231 days before this check (0). No release in the last 90 days (0). No commit on main since 2026-05-22, about 1,300 open issues and 512 open pull requests, and the CVE report (#5254) had no maintainer reply we could see (3). The PyPI package lags main, which declares Python 3.13 and 3.14 support that the release doesn't allow (5). CI passed on the last commits and dependencies are pinned, as of May (5).); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 34 (Published on 31 October 2026, within 30 days, read as the last published change since no tag or release was found (30). One publication, so not three releases in 90 days (0). Issues, pull requests and Discussions couldn't be read, and the README frames the code as a reference prototype adapted from an internal version (0). No official SDK or registry entry (0). Exact dependency pins and a lockfile, but no CI workflow found, and the docs pin DSH 0.2.1-rc.3 (23 October 2026) while npm `latest` is 0.2.1-rc.5 (29 October 2026) (4).)
- Payments & pricing, Aider +20: Aider 60 (No payment protocol (0). Free and Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. Any model through LiteLLM, local ones included, with no signup.); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 40 (Self-hosted rule, as for the other open-source harnesses. No payment protocol (0). Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card for the software (20). An agent can't get started alone, because the setup needs a person to create a dedicated GitHub user account, accept the repository invitation and run `auth login` for the wrappers, which SETUP.md lists as operator steps. 0, as the other harnesses that need an account were read (0). The model provider is a separate purchase.)
- Transparency & trust, Aider +13: Aider 65 (Apache-2.0 (30). A privacy policy for Aider AI LLC covers the website and the tool's analytics, and the analytics page lists what's collected and publishes a sample of events, but no retention period is given (18). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (3). Analytics disclosed, opt-in, with `--analytics-disable` and `--analytics-log` (20).); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 52 (MIT, Copyright (c) 2026 DeepSeek Harness Team (30). The prototype has no data statement of its own. DeepSeek Harness's privacy policy (last updated 20 September 2026) names Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co., Ltd., says session logs are collected with official model services and may be used to train models with a right to opt out, and says custom model services aren't stored server-side. It agrees with DSH's session-log README, but neither is referred to from the prototype (12). No deprecation policy. The README says the published code differs from DeepSeek's internal version, and docs/006 warns that database migrations are one-way (3). Telemetry and the session-log upload are disclosed with opt-outs in DSH's own reference pages, not in this repository (6).)
- Schema & documentation, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) +5: Aider 56 (No machine-readable contract. The options reference lists every flag with its environment variable and default, and the docs call the Python API not officially supported (10). No llms.txt or Markdown versions of pages found in the site source (0). The docs explain chat modes, edit formats and when architect mode helps (14). Typed config through `.aider.conf.yml` and flags with defaults (10). Many usage examples and troubleshooting pages (12). A release history per version without dates (10).); dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 61 (Framework reading, as for deepseek-harness. No OpenAPI or JSON Schema is published. docs/006 documents the Management API's routes, fields, block shapes and refusals in tables, and the code validates settings with zod (12). Markdown docs in the repository, readable raw, and a SETUP.md written for a coding agent. No llms.txt (5). Nine numbered documents read in order, each stating purpose, limits and what not to do, such as never rerunning the profile-creation command for an upgrade (17). Closed sets for accept mode (`off`, `observe`, `auto`), admission cells, Source states, health states and `listen` (12). A worked curl example, refusals as 400, 404, 409 and 500 with `issues`, `setup` or `code`, a troubleshooting table and status exit codes 0 to 3 (13). package.json says 0.1.0 and pins an `engines.dsh` range, but no changelog or tags were found (2).)