Deepseek Harness made a stunning impact, exploding the entire AI community! ——It is not just an AI programming tool, but also a Lego factory for AI! On the evening of August 13th Beijing time, DeepSeek open-source a project called Harness. Not long after the message was sent out, the number of favorites on GitHub skyrocketed to 17000 stars. Someone asked, is Deepseek Harness really an AI programming tool like Claude Code? After my research, it is, but it is not. It can indeed help you write code, read files, run commands, and modify projects. On the surface, it seems to do the same type of work as AI programming tools such as Claude Code and Cursor. Saying it's not: those tools are "made specifically for writing code," while Harness is "made for AI to do various tasks, writing code is just one of those abilities. For example: Claude Code is a full-time chef who only knows how to cook, but does it very well. Harness is a restaurant owner with a kitchen who knows how to cook, but is better at directing several chefs, arranging menus, managing inventory, scheduling takeout, and even using this stove today and changing that stove tomorrow. A more accurate definition is: Harness is a platform that enables AI to schedule other AI and tools to complete complex tasks. It doesn't care whether you ask it to write code, analyze financial reports, or organize medical records, it cares about how to break down a big task, assign it to different AI, and then summarize the results. Writing code is only the 'first application scenario' to showcase its capabilities, not its endpoint. Harness is not competing with Claude Code for a job, it is redefining how AI should work. Next, let's explain in three sentences what Deepseek Harness really is, and see why it went viral as soon as it came out, earning 17000 stars and exploding the entire AI community! A regular AI tool is like this: a fixed brain, paired with several fixed hands and feet, capable of performing fixed tasks. Harness is different, it's played like this: (1) You the final say, not it the final say. Do you want to switch to an AI model? Change. Do you want to change the file system? Change. Do you want it to add new features to itself? it's fine too. (2) It does not bind to DeepSeek's own model. You can integrate Claude, ChatGPT, and local models all equally. (3) Its core idea is in one sentence: everything is a plugin. There is no 'absolutely immovable' part, you can disassemble and reinstall it. Simply put, it is not a 'coding tool', it is a platform that enables AI to work. Let's pick a few features that even ordinary people can understand. The first one: Do not bind any AI. If you fill in the DeepSeek key in the settings, it will listen to DeepSeek; Fill in Claude's, and it will listen to Claude. You can even hang up multiple stores at the same time, using whoever you want. It wants to unify the working mode of the "upper layer" of AI, not force you to use any particular model. Secondly, other AI can be used as employees. This is the most ruthless. Harness received a complex task that can be broken down into several parts: have Claude Code check this part of the code, have Codex analyze that module, and act as the project manager to summarize the results. It's not about 'supporting their models', it's about calling these two products over to work, handing them over and leaving. It's like a contractor, hiring a bunch of experts underneath. The third one: strict control of permissions. AI can modify files and run commands. What if it gets messy? Harness divides permissions into three levels: Can only see, cannot change; Can modify the current project; Completely let go. And its principle is: don't do anything you're not sure about, if you can't find a suitable isolation method, report an error directly, and never sneak away with orders. This is very reassuring. The fourth one: It is already capable of long-term tasks. After chatting with other AI tools, I forgot. Harness has already started to ponder: how to make AI remember long-term goals? How to run tasks in the background? Why stop in the middle and continue working tomorrow? It doesn't just want AI to 'answer a question', it wants AI to accomplish something for you, even if it takes a long time. Fifth: The most radical point is that AI can install plugins for itself. What ordinary AI cannot do without tools. The design of Harness is: AI discovers that it lacks a feature, which can check which plugins are currently installed, write a piece of code to define a new plugin, hang it up, complete the task, and then remove it after use. Of course, it's still a preview version now. Don't exaggerate it as "AI self evolving", but this direction is definitely worth keeping an eye on. How can ordinary people get started? Three steps to get it done! Installation is particularly simple, no need to tinker with source code. Step 1: Install Node.js on the computer (it is recommended to install version 24 directly), and then type in the terminal: ```bash npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web ``` Step 2: Open the browser http://127.0.0.1:3080 Fill in your DeepSeek (or Claude, OpenAI) API key in the settings. Step 3: Select a project folder and tell it "help me analyze what this project is for", and it will start working. Just three times, it's over. To be honest, the official label is very clear: Developer Preview, and there will be major changes in the future. So my suggestions are divided into two types: (1) If you just want to find a stable and reliable programming assistant to use every day, don't use it as your main tool for now, wait for it to mature a bit. (2) If you are interested in how AI tools evolve, or are already using things like Claude Code or Codex, it is strongly recommended to install one and give it a try. Because it does not represent 'another AI software', but rather the way the next generation of AI works - models are just one part of it, and how to organize models, tools, tasks, and permissions is what truly matters next. Judging from 17000 stars, there are already many people staring at this matter. Deepseek Harness has once again emerged, rewriting the landscape and gameplay of AI agents!