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Hacker News August 14, 2026 4 min signal 2026-08-14

DeepSeek Harness developer preview

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DeepSeek Harness developer preview

Everything is a plugin

DeepSeek Harness is now in developer preview for agent harness developers worldwide — source code included.

Every capability is a plugin that can be swapped or recomposed: models, tools, skills, sessions, sandboxes, storage, loops, scheduling, and the UI.

View on GitHubDeveloper docsCommunity plugins

$ npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web

$ git clone https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness

View on GitHubDeveloper docsCommunity plugins

Agent = Model + Harness

Harness

keeps agents working in real-world environments

The model is the soul of an agent.

A harness lets an agent understand its environment, use tools, and keep working in real-world settings.

Cordis kernel

The Cordis kernel manages plugin mounting, unmounting, and dependencies. Agent capabilities live in the plugins.

Capabilities as plugins

Plugins provide every agent capability, including models, tools, skills, sessions, sandboxes, storage, loops, scheduling, and the UI. Cordis services and events let the plugins work together.

Compose with configuration

Developers can select, swap, or extend any capability in configuration without changing the DeepSeek Harness source code.

Design approach

Everything is a plugin.

Every run is traceable.

Everything is a plugin

DeepSeek Harness is built on Cordis's plugin system. Plugins provide every agent capability, including models, tools, skills, sessions, sandboxes, storage, loops, scheduling, and the UI. Cordis services and events let the plugins work together. Developers can select, swap, or extend any capability in configuration without changing the DeepSeek Harness source code.

Every run is traceable

Everything the model sees is recorded in an append-only session log: system prompts, reasoning, tool calls and results, subagent scheduling, and every context injection. In the Trajectory view, you can inspect these records by source. Resume, fork, search, and replay all operate on the same event stream.

Multiple runtime modes

Standard mode includes the full toolset. Code mode uses model-generated code to orchestrate multiple rounds of tool calls. Minimal mode keeps only a shell tool and a file editor for benchmarking models in a minimal environment. Creator mode lets you inspect the current runtime, test Cordis plugins in memory, and combine them into new modes.

dsh-demoCreator mode

Describe what you want to build

Standard mode

Full coding agent with file editing, shell, file and web search, skills, planning, goals, subagents, and workflows.

Code mode

All Standard mode capabilities, with tools exposed through the Code Mode SDK so the model can combine multi-step operations in one TypeScript program.

Minimal mode

Two-tool coding agent with persistent bash and str_replace_editor.

Creator mode

Built for creating custom agent presets, with all Standard mode capabilities plus runtime inspection, plugin experiments, and preset-authoring guidance.

Design approach

Everything is a plugin.

Every run is traceable.

Everything is a plugin

DeepSeek Harness is built on Cordis's plugin system. Plugins provide every agent capability, including models, tools, skills, sessions, sandboxes, storage, loops, scheduling, and the UI. Cordis services and events let the plugins work together. Developers can select, swap, or extend any capability in configuration without changing the DeepSeek Harness source code.

Every run is traceable

Everything the model sees is recorded in an append-only session log: system prompts, reasoning, tool calls and results, subagent scheduling, and every context injection. In the Trajectory view, you can inspect these records by source. Resume, fork, search, and replay all operate on the same event stream.

Multiple runtime modes

Standard mode includes the full toolset. Code mode uses model-generated code to orchestrate multiple rounds of tool calls. Minimal mode keeps only a shell tool and a file editor for benchmarking models in a minimal environment. Creator mode lets you inspect the current runtime, test Cordis plugins in memory, and combine them into new modes.

dsh-demoCreator mode

Describe what you want to build

Standard mode

Full coding agent with file editing, shell, file and web search, skills, planning, goals, subagents, and workflows.

Code mode

All Standard mode capabilities, with tools exposed through the Code Mode SDK so the model can combine multi-step operations in one TypeScript program.

Minimal mode

Two-tool coding agent with persistent bash and str_replace_editor.

Creator mode

Built for creating custom agent presets, with all Standard mode capabilities plus runtime inspection, plugin experiments, and preset-authoring guidance.

Customize your DeepSeek Harness

Get started

Try it now or install from source

Quick start

Install Node.js, then launch the Web UI with npx.

$ npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web

Install from source

Clone the full source and follow the setup instructions in the repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness

Join the DSH plugin ecosystem

DeepSeek Harness remains in developer preview and is still being tested by developers building agent harnesses. Its core plugins and APIs will continue to evolve. We look forward to exploring the limits of intelligence with developers worldwide using open-source infrastructure that is reusable and composable.

View on GitHubDeveloper docsCommunity plugins

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