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Installing dsh — DeepSeek Harness Guide

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) ships as the npm package @deepseek-ai/dsh. As of 0.1.0-rc.x (developer preview), the official README documents two ways to run it.

Run with npx (no install)

Section titled “Run with npx (no install)”
Terminal window
npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web

The Web UI comes up at http://127.0.0.1:3080 by default. npx downloads the package on demand, so nothing lands in your global npm prefix.

Install globally

Section titled “Install globally”

The package publishes a dsh binary (see its package.json), so a standard global install also works:

Terminal window
npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh
dsh web

The README doesn’t lead with this one, but it’s what several people in Discussion #897 fell back to when npx got stuck resolving the package.

Run from source

Section titled “Run from source”

To run a full checkout instead of the published package:

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.git
cd deepseek-harness
pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm dsh web

You need Corepack-enabled pnpm for this. The repo pins pnpm@11.7.0, so run corepack enable first if pnpm --version doesn’t resolve. Building from source is also what people fall back to when npx installs are slow or failing in their region (see Discussion #897).

Node.js version requirement

Section titled “Node.js version requirement”

dsh’s package.json declares:

"engines": { "node": "^22.19.0 || >=24.0.0" }

Which works out to:

  • On the 22.x line, 22.19.0 or later. Earlier 22.x releases won’t do.
  • Anything from 24.0.0 up.
  • No version of 23.x, at any patch level. Node 23 is non-LTS and already EOL, and the project decided against carrying a dead release line rather than leaving it out by oversight. Its own Node engine floor note says so.

Three things put the floor where it is. The source runtime uses node:sqlite, unflagged from 22.13/23.4, and native TypeScript type-stripping, unflagged from 22.18/23.6. Separately, the @earendil-works/pi-ai dependency declares engines.node >=22.19.0 of its own.

Check your version before installing:

Terminal window
node -v

Install failures on older Node releases are a known issue. Install fails on an old Node version has the symptom and the workarounds people have reported.

Platform differences

Section titled “Platform differences”

It’s a plain npm package, so the commands above are the same on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Differences turn up after install, mostly in the sandbox backend that confines shell commands. Windows has known sandbox bugs that macOS and Linux don’t. Read the Windows guide before you let dsh write to your filesystem there.