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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Qwen Code

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

DeepSeek Harness (dsh)DeepSeek · Agent harness D49.2/100#909 of 1146 Qwen CodeAlibaba (Qwen team) · Agent harness BB72.4/100#107 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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

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

Qwen Code BB

Best for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 69 against 33
  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 77
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 68
  • Security & auth, 53 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 71
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • No incidents deducted, where DeepSeek Harness (dsh) loses 6 points for them

Watch for

The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek Harness (dsh)Qwen CodeEdge
Reliability16%203369Qwen Code +36
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27791Qwen Code +14
Agent ergonomics13%16.26885Qwen Code +17
Security & auth14%17.54053Qwen Code +13
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87188Qwen Code +17
Transparency & trust7%8.85063Qwen Code +13
Negative events≤15-60
TotalD 49.2/100BB 72.4/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek Harness (dsh)Qwen Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekAlibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-172026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-10-01
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity245k npm/wk28k stars, 105k npm/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (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.

Qwen Code

Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

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

Qwen Code

  1. Pass --approval-mode on every run. The settings default is auto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
  2. Add --max-session-turns, --max-wall-time and --max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
  3. --yolo doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add --sandbox, or on Linux set tools.executionSandbox with network set to closed
  4. Set QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false to stop usage statistics
  5. Authenticate with OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL and OPENAI_MODEL in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

Questions

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

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (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 Qwen Code open source?

Yes. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT). Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with DeepSeek Harness (dsh) or Qwen Code

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