DeepSeek Harness Desktop

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An Electron-based Windows desktop app that opens the DeepSeek Harness Web GUI (default http://127.0.0.1:3080).

What is DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is an open-source agent harness developed by DeepSeek AI. Repo：https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness

System Requirements (read before installing)

Runtime environment (end users)

Item	Requirement
OS	Windows 10 / Windows 11, 64-bit (x64) only. 32-bit is not supported; ARM64 is untested
Memory	4 GB or more recommended (the Electron UI and the local Harness service run at the same time)
Disk space	Installer ~108 MB, ~360 MB once installed (includes the bundled Node.js runtime). The first launch additionally downloads Harness dependencies to the user cache via npx (~250 MB). Reserve 600 MB or more in total
Node.js	Not required. The app bundles a Node.js 22 LTS runtime (v22.23.2) and prefers its npx when auto-starting the service; it only falls back to the system npx on PATH if the bundled runtime is missing
Port	127.0.0.1:3080 by default. Auto-start requires this port to be free; if another process already serves it, the app treats it as an externally running service and connects directly (no error)
Network	The first auto-start needs internet to download @deepseek-ai/dsh and its dependencies through the bundled npx; afterwards the app works offline
First launch	The first launch downloads the Harness packages — the app waits up to 90 seconds (shown by the "Starting…" animation); subsequent launches are much faster

The installer is not code-signed (Authenticode); Windows SmartScreen may warn about an "unknown publisher" — choose Run anyway.

Environment variables (optional)

Variable	Default	Description
DSH_URL	http://127.0.0.1:3080	Harness Web GUI address (set this when the service runs on another host/port)
DSH_HOME	%USERPROFILE%\.dsh	Harness data/config directory; also the working directory of the service process

Development / build environment

Item	Requirement
OS	Windows 10 / 11 (x64)
Node.js	20.9.0 or newer (same as Harness); npm ships with Node
Network	Needed during build: npm install fetches dependencies; npm run dist also downloads the bundled Node runtime from nodejs.org (SHA-256 verified against the official checksum, then unpacked into vendor/node; skipped if already present)

Features

• Opens the Harness UI in its own window (single instance; launching again just focuses the existing window)
• Auto-start local service: when http://127.0.0.1:3080 is not running, the app starts it with npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web from the bundled Node runtime (no system Node needed); the service started by the app is stopped when the app exits (externally running services are left alone)
• Starting animation: while the service is not ready and no error has occurred, the window shows "Starting…" with an animated dot-matrix rendition of the official whale icon; the error page (with details) only appears on real failures
• Local Server panel in Settings: open Settings in the sidebar and choose "Local Server" to see the Harness address with a status light — green when running, red when stopped/error; supports manual "Start/Stop service" and the "Auto-start service on app launch" toggle
• No menu bar ("File/View/Help" hidden); keyboard shortcuts preserved: Ctrl+R reload, Ctrl+ / Ctrl− / Ctrl+0 zoom, F11 fullscreen, Ctrl+Shift+I DevTools
• Offline error page with automatic retry every 5 seconds
• External links always open in the system browser; the window never leaves the Harness site

App settings are stored in %APPDATA%\DeepSeek Harness\settings.json.

Run (development)

npm install
npm start

To point the app at a Harness instance on a different address:

$env:DSH_URL = "http://127.0.0.1:3080"
npm start

Build the Windows installer

npm run dist

Before dist, scripts/fetch-node.js runs automatically: it downloads a pinned Node.js runtime (v22.23.2 win-x64) from nodejs.org, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, unpacks it into vendor/node, and ships it inside the installer (extraResources → resources/node at the install location). Versions that are already downloaded are skipped (idempotent).

Outputs go to dist/:

• DeepSeek Harness Setup x.x.x.exe — NSIS installer (choose install directory, create desktop shortcut)
• DeepSeek Harness x.x.x.exe — portable edition, no installation required

Package without generating an installer (for quick checks):

npm run pack

Project structure

dsh-desktop/
├── package.json          # dependencies, scripts, electron-builder config
├── scripts/
│   └── fetch-node.js     # downloads & verifies the bundled Node.js runtime (SHA-256), idempotent
├── vendor/
│   └── node/             # bundled Node.js 22 LTS runtime (shipped in the installer; don't edit)
├── src/
│   ├── main.js           # main process: window, service management (auto-start/monitor/stop), IPC
│   ├── preload.js        # preload script (secure contextBridge)
│   ├── overlay.js        # Local Server panel injected into the Settings UI
│   ├── start.html        # starting screen (dot-matrix whale swimming animation)
│   └── error.html        # offline error page when startup fails
└── build/
    ├── icon.png            # app icon (rendered from the official DeepSeek Harness favicon.svg)
    └── icon-render.html    # icon render source (kept for regeneration)

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.