What is the latest version of DeepSeek Harness?

v0.1.0-rc.8, released on 2026-08-19. It is a release candidate inside the v0.1 developer preview — there is no stable branch yet. Anything newer than this page's last review date will be on the official GitHub releases page.

The built-in preset that used to be called Code mode; rc.7 renamed the English label. It is the mode in which the model orchestrates a task by generating and running code against the harness rather than calling each tool one by one. Same preset, new name — older write-ups that say Code mode are describing PTC mode.

Is DeepSeek Harness stable enough for production?

No, and it does not claim to be. It is a developer preview whose README warns about compatibility-breaking changes in capital letters, and the first week delivered two release candidates and an incompatible storage-format change. Build against it and experiment — just do not put it anywhere a broken upgrade costs you money.

How do I update dsh, and will my sessions survive?

Run via npx and every launch fetches the latest build; from source, pull and rebuild. Sessions are the caveat: rc.8 changed the SQLite storage format incompatibly and the release notes describe no migration, so assume local session data does not cross that upgrade.

Do updates break installed plugins?

They can. The loader format and plugin APIs are still being shaped, so a plugin that loads on one release candidate may fail on the next. Before relying on one, check when its repository last pushed — an actively maintained plugin tracks upstream churn; an abandoned one quietly stops loading. Every plugin page in our directory shows that freshness.

The DeepSeek Harness changelog

DeepSeek Harness ships fast and breaks things — that is what a developer preview is for. This page tracks every official dsh release: what was added, what broke, and what it means if you write or install plugins. The official release notes are the authoritative source; what we add is a summary you can read in a minute, and the plugin-ecosystem context the notes leave out.

Current version

v0.1.0-rc.82026-08-19

The latest DeepSeek Harness release is v0.1.0-rc.8, published on 2026-08-19. The quick start — npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web — fetches the newest build every time you run it, so there is nothing to update. Building from source? Pull and rebuild, but read the storage note under rc.8 first.

v0.1.0-rc.82026-08-19

Official release notes

The multimodal release. Six days after launch: images become first-class input, and two rival coding agents become installable components.

Highlights

Native image requests can be enabled on the DeepSeek model adapters; /goal and /plan take mixed image-and-text input; the @ menu can reference files and whole sessions.
Claude Code and Codex install on demand as subagent Profile Bundles, with non-interactive permission modes and multiple named instances for Codex — what that does to the rivalry.
Windows PTY terminals keep persistent PowerShell sessions, on by default in the Minimal preset.
Quality of life: faster forking of long sessions, concurrent web_search queries, a smaller dependency download, and dsh web now opens the browser for you.
The Python SDK runtime covers all four built-in agent presets and bundles what rg/glob search and MCP stdio tools need.

Breaking change

The SQLite backend was reworked — reads, writes and forks got faster and files smaller, but the storage format is incompatible and the notes name no migration path. Treat local session data as disposable when crossing this version.

For plugin authors

rc.8 also publishes brand guidelines: “DeepSeek Harness” is a registered trademark, projects are asked to use the DSH abbreviation in names instead of the full mark, and descriptive wording like “built on DeepSeek Harness” stays fine. If you maintain a plugin, check your repo's name against them.

v0.1.0-rc.72026-08-17

Official release notes

Four days in: the first stabilising release — plugin UI seams, subagent job management, and a renamed preset.

Highlights

Plugins can register their own settings cards in the harness UI.
Codex and Claude Code subagent tasks are managed through the Job Panel.
MCP and ACP gain durable image attachments, and PTC Mode forwards nested images.
The English built-in preset Code mode is renamed PTC mode; DeepSeek models gain a low reasoning-effort option (the default stays high).
Fixes: persistent-Bash latency in the Minimal preset, stack overflows when paginating long histories, sessions dying after max-token truncation, Safari cursor drift in the composer, and a node-pty 1.2 beta upgrade for broader terminal compatibility.

v0.12026-08-13

Official release notes

DeepSeek Harness went public as an MIT-licensed developer preview and collected roughly 95,000 GitHub stars in its first two days; at our last dataset refresh the repository stood at 169,401. The pitch is one idea taken seriously: models, tools, skills, sessions, sandboxes, filesystems, the loop and the UI are all plugins on the Cordis runtime, composed through a cordis.yml loader file.

Highlights

One-command quick start — npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web — serving a local web UI on 127.0.0.1:3080.
Four built-in presets: Standard, Code (renamed PTC in rc.7), Minimal for benchmarking, and Creator for assembling your own.
The README warns, in capital letters, that compatibility-breaking changes are coming — a warning rc.8 went on to make good.

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest version of DeepSeek Harness?: v0.1.0-rc.8, released on 2026-08-19. It is a release candidate inside the v0.1 developer preview — there is no stable branch yet. Anything newer than this page's last review date will be on the official GitHub releases page.
What is PTC mode?: The built-in preset that used to be called Code mode; rc.7 renamed the English label. It is the mode in which the model orchestrates a task by generating and running code against the harness rather than calling each tool one by one. Same preset, new name — older write-ups that say Code mode are describing PTC mode.
Is DeepSeek Harness stable enough for production?: No, and it does not claim to be. It is a developer preview whose README warns about compatibility-breaking changes in capital letters, and the first week delivered two release candidates and an incompatible storage-format change. Build against it and experiment — just do not put it anywhere a broken upgrade costs you money.
How do I update dsh, and will my sessions survive?: Run via npx and every launch fetches the latest build; from source, pull and rebuild. Sessions are the caveat: rc.8 changed the SQLite storage format incompatibly and the release notes describe no migration, so assume local session data does not cross that upgrade.
Do updates break installed plugins?: They can. The loader format and plugin APIs are still being shaped, so a plugin that loads on one release candidate may fail on the next. Before relying on one, check when its repository last pushed — an actively maintained plugin tracks upstream churn; an abandoned one quietly stops loading. Every plugin page in our directory shows that freshness.

DSHarness is an independent directory of DeepSeek Harness plugins, not affiliated with DeepSeek AI. Summaries are condensed from the official release notes, which remain authoritative. Last reviewed 2026-08-20.