# DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenAI Codex (slim)

> 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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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-18
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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): D 49.2, rank #909 of 1146 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-harness.min.md
- OpenAI Codex: BB 73.4, rank #94 of 1146 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.min.md
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh), good for Developers who use DeepSeek models and want a scriptable harness with ACP, a JSON event stream and a Python SDK.
- OpenAI Codex, 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 Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.

| Category | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 33 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 68 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 40 | 82 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 71 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 50 | 84 |

| Fact (where they differ) | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | OpenAI |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| 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 |
| 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) |