DSK CLI — DeepSeek agentic CLI

A Claude-Code-style agentic terminal tool powered by the DeepSeek API. Launch dsk in any project directory, type natural-language requests, and the agent reads/writes files, searches the codebase, and runs shell commands — streaming DeepSeek's response token-by-token to your terminal.

Table of contents

• Screenshot
• Features
• Quick start
• Requirements
• Install
• Setup
• Usage
  • Slash commands
  • Input modes
  • Options
• Configuration
• Example session
• Development
• Contributing
• Acknowledgements
• License
• Notes

Screenshot

Features

• Claude-Code-style terminal UI — colored ❯ prompt bar, dimmed thinking block, collapsed one-line tool results (✓ bash: npm test (exit 0, 4.1s)), and a live footer (tokens in/out · running cost · git branch · elapsed time · permission mode).
• DeepSeek welcome splash — a Claude-Code-style welcome card with the DSK CLI ASCII wordmark in DeepSeek brand blue, a "powered by DeepSeek" tagline, version/context line, and getting-started tips.
• Streaming replies — tokens render as they arrive; the model's chain-of-thought is shown dimmed under a thinking header when thinking mode is on.
• Agentic tool loop — the model can read files, edit code, run tests, and keep going in one turn (capped at 25 iterations).
• Inline file diffs — every edit_file / write_file is followed by a colored diff right in the transcript (green + additions, red − removals, dim context), capped at 40 lines with a hint to run /diff for the full view.
• 7 core tools — read_file, write_file, edit_file, list_dir, glob, grep (ripgrep when available), bash.
• No permission prompts by default — tools run automatically, like DeepSeek's own chat UI. Cycle default → acceptEdits → plan → bypassPermissions with Shift+Tab, or set one with /mode / --mode.
• Rich prompt editing — multiline input (\ + Enter / Ctrl+J), command history (↑/↓), live suggestions as you type / commands or @ file paths (Tab cycles the dropdown and inserts the highlighted match), bracketed paste — pasting multi-line text buffers it as a multiline prompt and only submits when you press Enter, !cmd shell mode, Ctrl+A/E/U/K/W editing, Esc to interrupt a turn.
• Session persistence — transcripts saved to ~/.dsk/sessions/, resumable with --resume <id> or --continue.

Quick start

npm i -g .
dsk                # first run prompts for your API key, then you're in the REPL

That's it — type a request like explain this repo or fix the failing test.

Requirements

• Node.js 18.17+ (uses native fetch)
• A DeepSeek API key

Install

npm i -g .      # from this repository, or:
npm i -g dsk    # once published to npm

Setup

dsk                              # first run: interactive setup prompts for your API key
# or:
dsk config set api-key sk-...
# or: export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...
# or: pass --api-key sk-... per invocation

On first launch with no key configured, dsk asks for your API key with hidden input, verifies it against the API, and saves it to ~/.dsk/config.json with 0600 permissions. The key is never printed to the terminal. (The interactive prompt only appears on a real terminal — piped/non-TTY runs fail with an error, so set the key via config set, DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, or --api-key first.)

Usage

dsk                          # interactive REPL in the current directory
dsk "summarize this repo"    # one-off agentic turn, then exit
dsk --model deepseek-v4-pro  # use the stronger (more expensive) model
dsk --continue               # resume the most recent session
dsk --resume 2026-08-18T12-34-56-789Z   # resume a specific session
dsk config show              # view config (api key masked)

Slash commands

Command	Description
/help	Show help
/clear	Clear the screen and reset the conversation
/model [name]	List every available model (fetched live from GET /models) or switch directly, e.g. /model deepseek-v4-pro
/config	Show current configuration
/usage	Show token usage and cost for this session
/diff	Show the last file change as a unified diff
/theme [name]	Switch UI theme (default | ocean | mono)
/color [name]	Set the prompt-bar color (e.g. /color pink)
/mode [mode]	Show or set permission mode (Shift+Tab cycles)
/exit	Quit (Ctrl+C twice also works)

Input modes

• !cmd — run a shell command and add its output to the conversation.
• \ + Enter / Ctrl+J — multiline prompt input.
• / or @ — a live suggestion dropdown appears as you type (commands for /, files for @); Tab cycles through the matches and inserts the highlighted one, Shift+Tab still cycles permission modes.
• Paste — multi-line pastes are buffered (bracketed paste mode), so pasted newlines never submit the prompt; press Enter when you're ready to send.
• Esc — interrupt the agent mid-turn (partial work is kept).
• Ctrl+C — at a prompt: press twice to exit.
• Ctrl+O — page through the session transcript (via less, plain fallback).
• Shift+Tab — cycle permission modes.

Options

Flag	Description
--model <name>	Model to use (default deepseek-v4-flash)
--api-key <key>	API key (overrides env and config)
--dangerously-skip-permissions	Auto-approve all tool actions without prompting (redundant today — the default bypassPermissions mode already does this)
--mode <mode>	Permission mode (default bypassPermissions — no prompts): default | acceptEdits | plan | bypassPermissions
--permission-mode <mode>	Alias for --mode
--thinking <enabled|disabled>	Toggle DeepSeek thinking mode
--reasoning-effort <low|high|max>	Reasoning effort (default high)
--theme <name>	UI theme: default | ocean | mono
--color <name>	Prompt-bar color: default | red | blue | green | yellow | purple | orange | pink | cyan
--base-url <url>	Override the API base URL (testing)
--fullscreen	Run the REPL in the alternate (fullscreen) terminal buffer (also dsk config set fullscreen true)
--resume <id> / --continue	Resume a saved session

Colors are forced on whenever stdout is a TTY, so the themed UI renders even if your shell profile leaks NO_COLOR=1, TERM=dumb, or FORCE_COLOR=0.

Configuration

~/.dsk/config.json supports:

Key	Description
apiKey	DeepSeek API key
model	Model name (default deepseek-v4-flash)
thinking	Enable/disable thinking mode
reasoningEffort	low | high | max
temperature, topP, maxTokens	Sampling parameters (sent only in non-thinking mode)
baseUrl	API base URL override
fullscreen	Run in the alternate terminal buffer
theme, promptColor	UI theme and prompt-bar color
mode	Permission mode

Set them with dsk config set <key> <value> — kebab-case aliases like api-key, top-p, max-tokens, base-url, and prompt-color also work.

Example session

dsk v0.1.0 · ~/projects/myapp · (main) · bypassPermissions mode

❯ Why is the test failing?
  █ Let me look at the test and the implementation.
  ⚙ read_file: test/x.test.ts
  ✓ read_file: Read file: test/x.test.ts
  ⚙ read_file: src/x.ts
  ✓ read_file: Read file: src/x.ts
  The failure is in `handle()`: it returns early on empty input.
  ⚙ edit_file: src/x.ts
  ✓ edit_file: Edit applied: src/x.ts (+1 −1 lines)
  ⚙ bash: npm test
  ✓ bash: npm test (exit 0, 4.1s)
  All tests pass now.
❯ _
⚡ 12.4k in · 3.1k out · $0.004 · (main) · 41s   esc to interrupt · shift+tab for permissions

Development

npm install
npm run build     # tsc -> dist/
npm run dev       # run from source via tsx
npm test          # SSE parser + agentic loop tests (mock server)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue for bugs and feature ideas, or a pull request for code changes. Before submitting a PR:

1. Run npm run typecheck and npm test — both must pass.
2. Keep changes focused and covered by tests where practical.
3. Match the existing style (TypeScript, strict mode, no external deps beyond what's already in package.json).

Acknowledgements

• DeepSeek — the model + API this tool talks to.
• Claude Code — the terminal UX this project is styled after.

License

MIT © 2026 thangduonghuu

Notes

• DeepSeek thinking mode silently ignores temperature/top_p (per the API docs), so dsk only sends them in non-thinking mode.
• In multi-turn conversations where a tool call happened, the assistant's reasoning_content is echoed back to the API as the docs require.
• Non-goals for v1: multi-provider support, plugins/MCP, GUI.