deepseek-harness-desktop

An unofficial macOS desktop wrapper for DeepSeek Harness. It starts Harness automatically, assigns a private local port, embeds the Web UI in a desktop window, and stops the local service when the app exits.

DeepSeek Harness Desktop 是 DeepSeek Harness 的非官方 macOS 桌面封装。双击即可启动 Harness，无需手动运行命令、管理端口或打开浏览器。

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by DeepSeek AI.

Features

• Starts the bundled Harness runtime automatically.
• Uses an OS-assigned port bound only to 127.0.0.1.
• Opens the existing Harness Web UI in a standalone desktop window.
• Keeps Harness settings and sessions in the macOS application-data directory.
• Shuts down the Harness process when the desktop app exits.
• Shows actionable startup logs and supports one-click restart.
• Repairs missing dependencies for locally linked Harness plugins when the required package is bundled with the app.
• Pins @deepseek-ai/dsh to a tested version.
• Verifies packaged Harness peer dependencies during every release build.

Install

The current release supports Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3, M4, and later ARM-based Macs).

1. Download the latest .dmg from Releases.
2. Open the DMG and drag DeepSeek Harness Desktop into Applications.
3. The build is not Apple-notarized. On first launch, right-click the app in Finder and choose Open.
4. In Harness, open Settings → Models and configure your model provider and API key.
5. Choose a workspace before starting a session.

The API key is stored by Harness in its local application data; it is not included in this repository or the installer.

How it works

Desktop app
  ├─ starts the bundled Electron/Node runtime
  ├─ launches dsh web on an automatically assigned loopback port
  ├─ loads the local Harness Web UI
  └─ terminates Harness when the app quits

The app still uses a local HTTP server internally because that is how the upstream Harness Web UI communicates with its runtime. The port is automatic, loopback-only, and normally invisible to the user.

Development

Requirements:

• macOS on Apple Silicon
• Node.js ^22.19.0 or >=24.0.0
• npm

Run locally:

npm install
npm start

Build the DMG and ZIP:

npm run dist:mac

Artifacts are written to dist/. The build command fails if electron-builder removes any required DeepSeek Harness peer dependency.

Local data

Harness configuration and sessions are stored under Electron's macOS user-data directory, normally:

~/Library/Application Support/deepseek-harness-desktop/

Removing the application does not automatically remove this data.

Security model

DeepSeek Harness is a coding agent that can read files, modify a selected workspace, and run commands under its configured permission policy. This desktop wrapper:

• keeps the server bound to 127.0.0.1;
• uses a random available port;
• blocks untrusted navigation inside the desktop window;
• opens external links in the system browser;
• does not add remote-network access or authentication endpoints.

Review tool approvals and use version control for important projects.

Upstream status

DeepSeek Harness is currently a developer preview and may make compatibility-breaking changes. This repository intentionally pins a known Harness release and updates it only after desktop packaging tests pass.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.