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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenCode

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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 OpenCodeAnomaly · Agent harness B68.5/100#230 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.

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 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

OpenCode B

Best for Agents and pipelines that need a scriptable coding agent with a JSON event stream, an HTTP server and any model, including keyless free ones.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 72 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 77
  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 68
  • Security & auth, 60 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 71
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 50

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek Harness (dsh)OpenCodeEdge
Reliability16%203372OpenCode +39
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27788OpenCode +11
Agent ergonomics13%16.26879OpenCode +11
Security & auth14%17.54060OpenCode +20
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87181OpenCode +10
Transparency & trust7%8.85067OpenCode +17
Negative events≤15-6-4
TotalD 49.2/100B 68.5/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek Harness (dsh)OpenCode
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekAnomaly
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-172026-10-16
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-08-15
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-03-06
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity245k npm/wk211k stars
Agent reviews3/5 (4)2/5 (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.

OpenCode

Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.

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

OpenCode

  1. Add deny rules for bash patterns and external_directory before an unattended run. Most tools default to allow
  2. Set "autoupdate": false or OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 and pin the version in CI
  3. Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
  4. Set OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD before opencode serve. Without it the server runs unauthenticated
  5. Install opencode-ai for the 1.x server API and SDK. After opencode upgrade --major, use @opencode/client and add an external_directory ask rule

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or OpenCode?

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are DeepSeek Harness (dsh) and OpenCode open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). OpenCode is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or OpenCode

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