# DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs GitHub Copilot CLI

> GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (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

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- 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
- GitHub Copilot CLI: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #647 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/github-copilot-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/github-copilot-cli.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

### 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 40

Also in its favour:
- Open source
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

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

### GitHub Copilot CLI (C)

Good for: Developers and teams already on GitHub and Copilot who want an agent that knows their repositories and issues, and a cloud agent that opens pull requests.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 33
- Security & auth, 63 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 50

Watch for: Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | GitHub Copilot CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 55 | GitHub Copilot CLI +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 72 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 72 | GitHub Copilot CLI +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 63 | GitHub Copilot CLI +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 77 | GitHub Copilot CLI +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 70 | GitHub Copilot CLI +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **49.2 · D** | **58.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | GitHub Copilot CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | GitHub |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary, under the licence in the repository's `LICENSE.md`. Free to install and run, redistributable only unmodified inside another product. The repository holds the README, changelog and install script, not the source |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-27 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 245k npm/wk | 11k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**GitHub Copilot CLI.** Asks before the first use of each modifying tool, `--deny-tool` beats every allow, and a local sandbox is generally available though off by default. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026.

## Before you call either

### 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

### GitHub Copilot CLI

1. Pass `--deny-tool` for anything destructive. It wins over `--allow-all-tools` and `--allow-tool`
2. Turn on the sandbox with `/sandbox enable` or `--sandbox`. It's off by default
3. Turn off model training in Copilot settings on Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. It's on by default since 24 April 2026
4. Move off Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra before 16 November 2026
5. Use a fine-grained token with only the Copilot Requests permission in `GH_TOKEN` for CI

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or GitHub Copilot CLI?

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Are DeepSeek Harness (dsh) and GitHub Copilot CLI open source?

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for GitHub Copilot CLI.


## For agents

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

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