Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Orca

Orca scores 57.4 (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 1500 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

  • Free to start without a card

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

Orca C

Best for Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 58 against 15
  • Security & auth, 43 against 33
  • Maintenance & community, 75 against 34

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out

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 Orca +43

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).

Orca 58

Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.

Maintenance & community Orca +41

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).

Orca 75

Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.

Security & auth Orca +10

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).

Orca 43

Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this rundsh-superagent (DeepSeek)OrcaEdge
Reliability16%201558Orca +43
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26165Orca +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.26770Orca +3
Security & auth14%17.53343Orca +10
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83475Orca +41
Transparency & trust7%8.85254Orca +2
Negative events≤1500
TotalE 42.1/100C 57.4/100

Facts side by side

Factdsh-superagent (DeepSeek)Orca
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorDeepSeekLovecast Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthTokenNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-312026-11-06
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-20no document linked

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.

Orca

An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found.

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

Orca

  1. See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data
  2. Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) or Orca?

Orca scores 57.4 (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 Orca open source?

Yes. dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) is open source (MIT). Orca is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) or Orca

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