DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Mistral Vibe CLI

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.

Mistral Vibe CLI

Apache-2.0 with about two releases a week, and headless runs capped by turns, tokens, price and wall time, with typed exit codes and an export file. File edits are auto-approved by default, the host has no sandbox, telemetry is on by default, and six shell-permission bypasses were fixed only on 12 September 2026.

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

Mistral Vibe CLI

1. Pass --agent on every -p run (plan is read-only). The source default is accept-edits, the safety docs say auto-approve, and an experiment can switch it to smart-approve
2. Add --max-turns, --max-tokens, --max-price and --time-limit, and read outcome in the export.json that --output-dir writes. Exit 3 means a limit or a refusal
3. Run in a container or behind --agent-socket before using --auto-approve. Vibe has no sandbox of its own on the host
4. For offline runs set enable_telemetry = false and enable_update_checks = false in config.toml. The docs' enable_auto_update isn't the key the code reads
5. Use 2.25.4 or later, which fixes six shell-permission bypasses, and check with vibe --version