# Amp vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

> Amp scores 57.1 (C) to DeepSeek Harness's 49.2 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Amp scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Amp: grade C, 57.1/100, rank #691 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amp.json
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh): grade D, 49.2/100, rank #909 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-harness.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-harness.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Amp (C)

Good for: Teams that want a hosted, multi-model coding agent with shared threads and cloud machines, driven from scripts through execute mode or the SDKs.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 57 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 50

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek Harness (dsh) loses 6 points for them

Watch for: The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin

### DeepSeek Harness (dsh) (D)

Good for: Developers who use DeepSeek models and want a scriptable harness with ACP, a JSON event stream and a Python SDK.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 72
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: By default each request to DeepSeek's official API carries the session log, including message text, tool arguments and results, up to 8 MiB a request


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amp | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 31 | 33 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 77 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 68 | Amp +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 40 | Amp +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 60 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 71 | Amp +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 50 | Amp +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **57.1 · C** | **49.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amp | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Amp Frontier Corporation | DeepSeek |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is private | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 41k npm/wk | 245k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Amp.** Execute mode streams JSON in a format close to Claude Code's, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and the security reference names each provider and what it sees. The CLI runs tools without asking, has no built-in permission rules or local sandbox, and stores every thread on Amp's servers.

**DeepSeek Harness (dsh).** Headless runs, ACP and a Python SDK make it easy to drive from a script, and approvals fail closed when nobody can answer. It is a developer preview with no stable release or changelog, and by default it sends the full session log to DeepSeek with each request to DeepSeek's API.

## Before you call either

### Amp

1. Run unattended jobs in a container or VM. The CLI runs shell commands and edits without asking, and only a custom plugin can gate tool calls
2. Set `AMP_API_KEY` to an access token starting `sgamp_` from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token that `amp login` stores
3. Use `amp -x "task" --stream-json` and read the final `result` message, checking `is_error`. Exit codes are not documented
4. Set `AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1` or `amp.updates.mode` to `disabled` in CI. Updates install automatically by default
5. Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown

### DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

1. Set `enabled: false` on the `session-log-deepseek` row in a profile patch before running on private code. Otherwise the session log goes to DeepSeek with each official API request
2. Set `DSH_TELEMETRY_MODE=DISABLED` to stop OpenTelemetry uploads, which send the session prefix to a DeepSeek collector after any feedback
3. Treat exit code 1 and the `turn_end` reason as failure. A `--json` stream can end with a `final` event for a failed run
4. Run in a disposable container or VM. The sandbox doesn't confine reads or network, and SAFETY.md says the project has had no security audit
5. Pin the version. npm `latest` (0.2.0-rc.2) and `next` (0.2.1-rc.2) differ, DeepSeek's changelog asks for 0.2.1-rc.1 or later, and the README warns of breaking changes

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amp or DeepSeek Harness (dsh)?

Amp scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Are Amp and DeepSeek Harness (dsh) open source?

No open-source release is listed for Amp. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-deepseek-harness.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-deepseek-harness.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amp", "b": "deepseek-harness"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amp deepseek-harness`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-harness.json

## Other comparisons with Amp or DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

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