# dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Emdash (slim)

> Emdash scores 53.9 (D) to dsh-superagent's 42.1 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-emdash.md (~6,350 tokens) · this version ~2,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-emdash.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-emdash
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Emdash scores 53.9 (D) on agent readiness against dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)'s 42.1 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do agent harnesses.

- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek): E 42.1, rank #1289 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-superagent.min.md
- Emdash: D 53.9, rank #933 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/emdash.min.md
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek), good for Teams on github.com that want a DeepSeek Harness agent to turn allowed people's issue requests into pull requests, run on an isolated machine or OS account. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 61 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 55. Also Free to start without a card.
- Emdash, good for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 15; Security & auth, 38 against 33; Payments & pricing, 60 against 40; Maintenance & community, 70 against 34. Also No key needed to call it.

| Category | dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) | Emdash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 15 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 61 | 55 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 67 | 55 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 33 | 38 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 34 | 70 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 52 | 54 |

| Fact (where they differ) | dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) | Emdash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | General Action, Inc. |
| Auth | Token | None |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-20 | no document linked |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Emdash +40: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 15 (Local-package reading, since it runs as a DSH bundle on the operator's machine. Not published to npm (`private: true` in package.json, and the registry has no `dsh-superagent`). It installs from a git clone with `pnpm install && pnpm build` on top of `@deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-rc.3`, with Node 22.19+ or 24+, git 2.32+, Python 3.8+, tmux and gh 2.48+ stated, so half credit (10). A vitest suite of about 25 spec files is listed in docs/007, and `pnpm check` runs the typecheck, tests and build. Two spec files were read on raw.githubusercontent.com. No CI workflow was found at five common paths under .github/workflows, and the directory couldn't be listed (5). Open issues couldn't be read, because github.com and api.github.com weren't reachable from our network. Unchecked, so scored absent (0). Version 0.1.0 with no tag, release or changelog found, so no semver record (0). A research prototype, not stable (0).); Emdash 55 (Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.)
- Maintenance & community, Emdash +36: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 34 (Published on 31 October 2026, within 30 days, read as the last published change since no tag or release was found (30). One publication, so not three releases in 90 days (0). Issues, pull requests and Discussions couldn't be read, and the README frames the code as a reference prototype adapted from an internal version (0). No official SDK or registry entry (0). Exact dependency pins and a lockfile, but no CI workflow found, and the docs pin DSH 0.2.1-rc.3 (23 October 2026) while npm `latest` is 0.2.1-rc.5 (29 October 2026) (4).); Emdash 70 (v1.2.11 on 6 November 2026 (30). v1.2.9, v1.2.10 and v1.2.11 within two weeks (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current installers and Homebrew cask (15). Release workflows, no test CI (5). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70.)
- Payments & pricing, Emdash +20: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 40 (Self-hosted rule, as for the other open-source harnesses. No payment protocol (0). Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card for the software (20). An agent can't get started alone, because the setup needs a person to create a dedicated GitHub user account, accept the repository invitation and run `auth login` for the wrappers, which SETUP.md lists as operator steps. 0, as the other harnesses that need an account were read (0). The model provider is a separate purchase.); Emdash 60 (Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.)
- Agent ergonomics, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) +12: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 67 (Harness reading, scored on what a team or pipeline driving it has to supply. The worker preset is DSH's `standard` with web fetch, plan mode, questions, scheduling and workflows left out, the main Session can't write files, and tool results over 8,192 characters are pruned (18). A concurrency limit with one extra slot for a person's message, a 5-second foreground shell, a 10-minute prepare limit and 30 minutes for background work after a turn. No cost or turn limit per Ticket was found (12). Ticket stages, health entries per part, Reports of `blocked` or `failed`, API refusals with codes, and three retries with growing backoff on 408, 429, 5xx and dropped connections (17). Saves carry a revision and a stale one gets 409, state and Sessions survive a restart, and a restarted Assignment gets a recovery note to check git and GitHub before repeating any outside action (16). Sensible defaults (observe mode, port 3082, branch prefix `agent/`), but setup needs a dedicated GitHub user account, CLI wrappers, tmux and a profile, and there is no SDK. Work is requested by mentioning the agent account on GitHub or Feishu (4).); Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).)
- Schema & documentation, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) +6: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 61 (Framework reading, as for deepseek-harness. No OpenAPI or JSON Schema is published. docs/006 documents the Management API's routes, fields, block shapes and refusals in tables, and the code validates settings with zod (12). Markdown docs in the repository, readable raw, and a SETUP.md written for a coding agent. No llms.txt (5). Nine numbered documents read in order, each stating purpose, limits and what not to do, such as never rerunning the profile-creation command for an upgrade (17). Closed sets for accept mode (`off`, `observe`, `auto`), admission cells, Source states, health states and `listen` (12). A worked curl example, refusals as 400, 404, 409 and 500 with `issues`, `setup` or `code`, a troubleshooting table and status exit codes 0 to 3 (13). package.json says 0.1.0 and pins an `engines.dsh` range, but no changelog or tags were found (2).); Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).)
- Security & auth, Emdash +5: dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) 33 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The `superagent` profile is created from DSH's Web template, and DSH documents that shipped profiles mount `session-log-deepseek`, enabled by default, which adds the session log to each official DeepSeek API request, up to 8 MiB. dsh-superagent's docs don't mention it, and its Sessions read issue, pull request and chat text and the repository. Setup and worker shells drop variables named KEY, PASSWORD, SECRET or TOKEN, and `GH_TOKEN` and `GITHUB_TOKEN` are removed from git (8). Both presets run `danger-full-access` without approval as the operator's OS user. docs/006 says the account wrappers don't isolate the process, a worker can run programs by path and read the operator's home directory, and recommends a dedicated OS account. The gate, `observe` default, blocked commands and no auto-merge as the agent account narrow what it does, not what it can do (6). docs/002 says messages, comments and quoted documents are inputs to a decision and can't change allowed lists, rules or Mandates, bots can never make explicit requests, and prompt edits don't change the gate. Workers with full access still read untrusted Thread text, and no further guidance on that was found (7). Decisions are recorded with reasons, Ticket details show the Trigger, Decision, scope and Policy version, the host records the prompt revisions each Session used, and every GitHub message starts with an automated-agent line by default (12). No SECURITY.md (404 at the root and in .github), no security.txt on www.deepseek.com (404), no bug bounty or advisory found. NVD has no record for the prototype. The CVEs against DSH itself are on the deepseek-harness listing (0).); Emdash 38 (Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.)