Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs mini-swe-agent

mini-swe-agent scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)'s 42.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 955 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) E

Best 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.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where mini-swe-agent loses 4 points for them

Watch for

Executor and main Sessions run with danger-full-access as the operator's OS user, and the docs say a worker can read the operator's home directory

mini-swe-agent C

Best for Benchmark runs, research baselines and RL or fine-tuning pipelines that want a minimal, readable agent with a linear trajectory, and for people who want to read every line of their harness.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 15
  • Security & auth, 56 against 33
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 49 against 34

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

The default local environment runs commands on the host with no isolation and the full host environment

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability mini-swe-agent +55

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).

mini-swe-agent 70

Read as a local package, graded on 2.4.6, the release pip install mini-swe-agent installs. One official PyPI package with Python 3.10 or newer stated (20). A pytest workflow runs on every push to main with Podman, bubblewrap and Apptainer installed, 41 test files and Codecov coverage, but GitHub's pages refused this run, so whether main passes is unconfirmed (15). 38 open issues against 247 closed and 61 open pull requests against 649 closed on 18 October, per shields.io counts, and bug fixes from outside contributors were merged through July, such as #915, #896 and #886. Issue types and reply times couldn't be read (15). Versions follow semver and v2's breaking changes came with a migration guide, but there's no changelog file and tags carry only a version bump (8). 2.4.6, past 1.0, though the PyPI classifier still says 3 - Alpha (12).

Security & auth mini-swe-agent +23

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).

mini-swe-agent 56

Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for every harness in this batch. 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. No telemetry in mini's own source, and prompts go only to the configured provider. LiteLLM's own network behaviour wasn't checked (28). The CLI asks before each command by default, with regex whitelists and -y to skip, but the Python DefaultAgent never asks, the default local environment has no isolation and passes the full host environment to every command, and the experimental bubblewrap sandbox leaks host variables and shares the network (CVE-2026-108592). Docker forwards no host variables unless listed (8). No prompt-injection guidance found (2). A full trajectory of every command and output saved as JSON after each step, and a trajectory inspector (13). A security page naming four maintainers' emails with no response time, no bounty or advisory page found, and CVE-2026-108592 published by VulnCheck on 10 October with no fix released. Compromised LiteLLM 1.82.7 and 1.82.8 are excluded in the dependency pins since 24 March 2026 (#794) (5).

Payments & pricing mini-swe-agent +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.

mini-swe-agent 60

Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card or account for the software, and it runs against a local model (20). An agent can install it from PyPI and run a task with no sign-up, given a model endpoint (20).

Maintenance & community mini-swe-agent +15

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).

mini-swe-agent 49

2.4.6 on PyPI on 2026-07-23, 87 days before this check (20). One release in the 90 days to 18 October (0). Three commits on main since 23 July, one from pre-commit-ci, the last on 3 September. 38 open issues against 247 closed and 61 open pull requests against 649 closed, per shields.io counts on 18 October, and outside fixes were merged within days through July, but maintainer reply times couldn't be read (12). The Python library ships in the same package as the CLI and is current (10). Dependabot and pre-commit-ci run, and CI workflows exist with their current state unconfirmed (7).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this rundsh-superagent (DeepSeek)mini-swe-agentEdge
Reliability16%201570mini-swe-agent +55
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26158dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.26769mini-swe-agent +2
Security & auth14%17.53356mini-swe-agent +23
Payments & pricing10%12.54060mini-swe-agent +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83449mini-swe-agent +15
Transparency & trust7%8.85256mini-swe-agent +4
Negative events≤150-4
TotalE 42.1/100C 57.1/100

Facts side by side

Factdsh-superagent (DeepSeek)mini-swe-agent
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekSWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthTokenNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-312026-07-23
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-20no document linked
Popularitynone8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)

The authorization design is careful, with allowed lists, Mandates and a Policy enforced in code, proactive work only recorded by default and auto-merge off. Executors run every command without approval under the operator's OS user, and the README calls it a research prototype with no release, changelog or security policy.

mini-swe-agent

A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

Before you call either

dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)

  1. Run it under a dedicated OS account holding only the agent's credentials. Executors run commands without approval and can read the operator's home directory
  2. Set enabled: false on the session-log-deepseek row of the superagent profile before using DeepSeek's official API on private code
  3. Keep the accept mode at observe and the allowed list short until the recorded Decisions look right
  4. Wait for scripts/dsh-superagent status to stop exiting 1 after any save that answers restarting: true before the next request
  5. Send x-orchestrator-request: 1 and a loopback Host to the Management API, and send revision with each PUT, since a stale one gets 409

mini-swe-agent

  1. Run with -y --exit-immediately for unattended use. Without --exit-immediately it waits for input when the agent finishes
  2. Set MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true and MSWEA_MODEL_NAME first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
  3. Read info.exit_status in the -o trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
  4. For untrusted repositories use -c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
  5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) or mini-swe-agent?

mini-swe-agent scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)'s 42.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) and mini-swe-agent open source?

Yes. dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) is open source (MIT). mini-swe-agent is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) or mini-swe-agent

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