# DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenAI Codex

> OpenAI Codex scores 73.4 (BB) 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

OpenAI Codex scores 73.4 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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
- OpenAI Codex: grade BB, 73.4/100, rank #94 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-codex.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.

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

### OpenAI Codex (BB)

Good for: Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 33
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 77
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 68
- Security & auth, 82 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 84 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Pre-1.0 at 0.163.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | OpenAI Codex | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 55 | OpenAI Codex +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 90 | OpenAI Codex +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 80 | OpenAI Codex +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 82 | OpenAI Codex +42 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 87 | OpenAI Codex +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 84 | OpenAI Codex +34 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **49.2 · D** | **73.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 245k npm/wk | 126k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 3/5 (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.

**OpenAI Codex.** Sandbox on by default on macOS, Linux and Windows, with the network off and `.git` and `.codex` read-only. Pre-1.0 at 0.163.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes.

## 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

### OpenAI Codex

1. Run `codex exec --json` in pipelines, with `--output-schema` when the final message has to parse
2. Keep the default sandbox, which has the network off. `--yolo` removes both the sandbox and approvals
3. Replace `gpt-5.5` with `gpt-6.1-sol` in saved configs, custom agents and scripts under ChatGPT sign-in. GPT-5.5 retired there on 14 October 2026
4. Set `[analytics] enabled = false` and `[feedback] enabled = false` in config.toml to keep usage data local
5. Pin the npm version. A 0.x minor lands every few days

## Questions

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

OpenAI Codex scores 73.4 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are DeepSeek Harness (dsh) and OpenAI Codex open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). OpenAI Codex is open source (Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms).


## For agents

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

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