# DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Prime Agent

> Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) 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

Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation. 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
- Prime Agent: grade C, 60.5/100, rank #562 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.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.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 42

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

### Prime Agent (C)

Good for: Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 33
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 68
- Security & auth, 50 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 50

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek Harness (dsh) loses 6 points for them

Watch for: No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Prime Agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 33 | 65 | Prime Agent +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 42 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 73 | Prime Agent +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 50 | Prime Agent +10 |
| 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 | 79 | Prime Agent +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 64 | Prime Agent +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.2 · D** | **60.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Prime Agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Prime Intellect |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 245k npm/wk | 22k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## 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.

**Prime Agent.** Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and sessions survive a closed terminal through a supervising daemon. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and the Rust build on the main branch ships only as nightly betas.

## 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

### Prime Agent

1. Run it in a disposable clone, container or VM. It executes model-written Python and shell commands with the user's rights and asks nothing first
2. Set `PRIME_AGENT_TELEMETRY=0` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first run if usage metrics must not leave the machine
3. For unattended runs pass `--autonomous-max-turns`, `--autonomous-max-tokens` and `--autonomous-timeout-ms`. Reaching a limit does not mean the task succeeded
4. Headless use is `-p` with `--mode json` per the argument parser. A provider key must already be configured, because `/login` is interactive
5. The `-t/--tools`, `-nt/--no-tools` and `-nbt/--no-builtin-tools` flags were removed and now fail as unknown options

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or Prime Agent?

Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on schema & documentation.

### Are DeepSeek Harness (dsh) and Prime Agent open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). Prime Agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or Prime Agent

- [Agent Zero vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Aider vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Amp vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Amp vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
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