# DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Kiro CLI

> Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (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

Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (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 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
- Kiro CLI: grade C, 60.6/100, rank #557 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kiro-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kiro-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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40

Also in its favour:
- 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

### Kiro CLI (C)

Good for: Teams on AWS that want one agent configuration across terminal, IDE and web, with central permission policy, prompt logging to their own S3 bucket and IAM Identity Centre sign-in.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 33
- Security & auth, 69 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 50

Watch for: Free and individual paid accounts have content used for service improvement, including model training, unless they opt out


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Kiro CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 57 | Kiro CLI +24 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 79 | Kiro CLI +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 67 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 69 | Kiro CLI +29 |
| 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 | 73 | Kiro CLI +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 69 | Kiro CLI +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **49.2 · D** | **60.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Kiro CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Amazon Web Services |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary. Licensed as AWS Content under the AWS Customer Agreement and the AWS Intellectual Property Licence (https://kiro.dev/license/). The GitHub repository is the public issue tracker and doesn't hold 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 | 2026-08-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-18 |
| 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 |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 245k npm/wk | 4.4k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (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.

**Kiro CLI.** Permission rules follow deny over ask over allow, cloned repositories can't add rules, and a headless session treats every ask as a deny. Content from Free and individual paid accounts is used for service improvement, including model training, unless the user opts out, and API keys for pipelines need a paid plan.

## 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

### Kiro CLI

1. Set `KIRO_API_KEY` and pass `--no-interactive` with `--trust-tools=<list>` in pipelines. Keep `--trust-all-tools` for disposable environments
2. Pass `--require-mcp-startup` when a run depends on MCP tools. Without it a failed server is logged and the run continues
3. Pass `--no-interactive` whenever input is piped from a source you don't control, and run 2.10.0 or later on Windows
4. Run `kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled false` and turn off content collection on Free and individual plans. Both are on by default
5. Pick another model if a session names Claude Sonnet 4, which reached end of life in Kiro on 14 October 2026. Kiro doesn't switch it for you

## Questions

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

Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (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 payments & pricing.

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

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


## For agents

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

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