deepseek-harness-desktop

DeepSeek Harness is an open-source agent harness from DeepSeek AI. Everything is a plugin, powered by Cordis. This repository does not contain that source. It packages a pinned revision into Windows, macOS, and Linux installers, and adds a first-run path to connect an existing subscription.

End users do not need Node.js, pnpm, or a C++ toolchain. Installed size is about 0.5 GB.

Developer preview

DeepSeek Harness is in developer preview and is iterating rapidly. There will be compatibility-breaking changes.

These desktop builds are unsigned. Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper will warn; Linux packages have no signature. There is no in-app auto-update. Treat the OS trust UI as correct. This packager is not an official DeepSeek product page.

Install

Pick the asset for your OS and CPU from the latest GitHub Release, or use a package manager. Details: docs/user-install.md. Gallery status: packaging/README.md.

# macOS
brew tap LodeKennes/deepseek-harness-desktop https://github.com/LodeKennes/deepseek-harness-desktop
brew install --cask deepseek-harness

# Windows
winget install LodeKennes.DeepSeekHarness   # after the first community PR lands
scoop bucket add deepseek-harness https://github.com/LodeKennes/deepseek-harness-desktop
scoop install deepseek-harness
choco install deepseek-harness              # after the community package is approved

# Arch
yay -S deepseek-harness-desktop-bin         # after the AUR repo is created

The official CLI path remains npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web — see the upstream README.

macOS, after copying to Applications:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/DeepSeek Harness.app"

Windows: More info → Run anyway. The NSIS “Add dsh to PATH” checkbox stays off so a global CLI install is not shadowed.

Connect a subscription

On first launch, connect an account you already pay for. The app starts a localhost-only helper, opens the provider’s real browser sign-in, discovers models, and configures Harness.

Skip the screen to add an API key later under Settings → Models. Reopen it from Subscriptions → Manage subscriptions….

Account files stay under ~/.dsh/desktop/cliproxyapi/auth (or %USERPROFILE%\.dsh\…). They are not sent to this repository. The helper is CLIProxyAPI.

Desktop and the CLI share ~/.dsh. Do not run dsh and this app at the same time — each boot heals $DSH_HOME/profiles/node_modules to its own install.

Community and support

Use the upstream channels. This packager does not host a separate community.

• Feedback and bug reports: DeepSeek Harness Discussions
• Desktop-specific packaging issues: this repo’s issues
• Plugin authors: add the dsh-plugin topic
• DeepSeek Harness Discord

Version pin

versions.json is the source of truth for this repo. It is not a source of truth for Harness.

A push to master publishes desktop-v0.1.2-rc.1-build-N. The desktop base version matches Harness, while build-N is a globally increasing desktop build counter. Bumping the Harness version and SHA is a deliberate commit here. There is no git submodule and no vendored Harness tree.

Development

You need Git, jq, Node 24, and pnpm 11.21.0. The scripts do not install them.

./scripts/stage-runtime.sh      # pin → build Harness → stage sidecar + Node
./scripts/stage-cliproxyapi.sh  # pin → verify → stage CLIProxyAPI
pnpm start                      # tsc && electron .
pnpm test
./scripts/package.sh            # host OS/arch only; no cross-compile

Brand and desktop-only patches live in styling.json and resources/. See docs/development.md.

For the agent itself, start with the upstream development guide, architecture, and AGENTS.md.

License

MIT. Upstream Harness and the bundled CLIProxyAPI binary are also MIT; their licenses ship in the installers.