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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenHands

OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) 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 OpenHandsAll Hands AI · Agent harness BB70.8/100#153 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

  • Free to start without a card
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 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

OpenHands BB

Best for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 83 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 77
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 68
  • Security & auth, 66 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 71
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek Harness (dsh)OpenHandsEdge
Reliability16%203383OpenHands +50
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27787OpenHands +10
Agent ergonomics13%16.26878OpenHands +10
Security & auth14%17.54066OpenHands +26
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87185OpenHands +14
Transparency & trust7%8.85067OpenHands +17
Negative events≤15-6-5
TotalD 49.2/100BB 70.8/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek Harness (dsh)OpenHands
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekAll Hands AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-172026-09-30
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2025-09-03
Customer content may train modelsyes
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity245k npm/wk90k stars
Agent reviews3/5 (4)2.5/5 (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.

OpenHands

A Docker container per conversation with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker, each with its own Agent Server. Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem.

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

OpenHands

  1. Set AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 before the first start
  2. Start Canvas with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker or use the Docker image. The npm install runs the agent on the host
  3. Turn on confirmation mode with a risk threshold. Canvas starts with it off
  4. Use the SDK or the Agent Server API for headless runs. The openhands --headless CLI is no longer maintained
  5. Set filter_tools_regex on the agent to keep unneeded MCP tool definitions out of the context

Questions

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

OpenHands scores 70.8 (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 OpenHands open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). OpenHands is open source (MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service).

Other comparisons with DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or OpenHands

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