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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Kilo Code CLI

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

DeepSeek Harness (dsh)DeepSeek · Agent harness D49.2/100#909 of 1146 Kilo Code CLIKilo Code Inc. · Agent harness BB73/100#98 of 1146

Which one, for what

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) D

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

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.3 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

Kilo Code CLI BB

Best for Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 77
  • Security & auth, 64 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 71
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Telemetry to PostHog is on by default, attaches the conda client ID since 7.8.10, and the privacy policy doesn't mention it

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek Harness (dsh)Kilo Code CLIEdge
Reliability16%203385Kilo Code CLI +52
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27790Kilo Code CLI +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.26872Kilo Code CLI +4
Security & auth14%17.54064Kilo Code CLI +24
Payments & pricing10%12.56050DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87187Kilo Code CLI +16
Transparency & trust7%8.85076Kilo Code CLI +26
Negative events≤15-6-2
TotalD 49.2/100BB 73/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek Harness (dsh)Kilo Code CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekKilo Code Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-172026-10-15
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-09-30
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-05-29
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity245k npm/wk28k stars, 33k npm/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (4)2.3/5 (4)

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.

Kilo Code CLI

Shell commands ask before running by default, and an optional operating-system sandbox blocks writes outside the workspace and outbound network. Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and the sandbox is off, so an unattended kilo run --auto approves everything not denied unless both are configured first.

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

Kilo Code CLI

  1. Set sandbox.enabled to true in the global kilo.jsonc before kilo run --auto. --auto approves every permission request not explicitly denied
  2. Set experimental.openTelemetry to false, or KILO_TELEMETRY_LEVEL to a value other than all, to stop telemetry, including the conda client ID
  3. Add needed hosts to sandbox.allowed_hosts in global config. MCP tool calls are unavailable while network restriction is on
  4. Without --auto a non-interactive run rejects every permission prompt and exits 1
  5. Confine subagent writes with a session-level edit rule. From 7.8.13 a custom agent's own edit denies no longer bind the subagents it starts

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or Kilo Code CLI?

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on payments & pricing.

Are DeepSeek Harness (dsh) and Kilo Code CLI open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). Kilo Code CLI is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or Kilo Code CLI

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