# DeepSeek TUI

> **A terminal-native coding agent for [DeepSeek V4](https://platform.deepseek.com) models — with 1M-token context, thinking-mode reasoning, and full tool-use.**

```bash
npm i -g deepseek-tui
```

[![CI](https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[![npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/deepseek-tui)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/deepseek-tui)

![DeepSeek TUI screenshot](assets/screenshot.png)

---

## What is it?

DeepSeek TUI is a coding agent that runs entirely in your terminal. It gives DeepSeek's frontier models direct access to your workspace — reading and editing files, running shell commands, searching the web, managing git, and orchestrating sub-agents — all through a fast, keyboard-driven TUI.

**Built for DeepSeek V4** (`deepseek-v4-pro` / `deepseek-v4-flash`) with 1M-token context windows and native thinking-mode (chain-of-thought) streaming. See the model's reasoning unfold in real time as it works through your tasks.

### Key Features

- **Native RLM** (`rlm_query` tool) — fans out 1–16 cheap `deepseek-v4-flash` children in parallel against the existing DeepSeek client for batched analysis, decomposition, or parallel reasoning
- **Thinking-mode streaming** — shows DeepSeek's chain-of-thought as it reasons about your code
- **Full tool suite** — file ops, shell execution, git, web search/browse, apply-patch, sub-agents, MCP servers
- **1M-token context** — automatic intelligent compaction when context fills up
- **Three interaction modes** — Plan (read-only explore), Agent (interactive with approval), YOLO (auto-approved). Decomposition-first system prompts teach the model to `checklist_write`, `update_plan`, and spawn sub-agents before acting
- **Reasoning-effort tiers** — cycle through `off → high → max` with Shift+Tab
- **Session save/resume** — checkpoint and resume long sessions
- **Workspace rollback** — side-git pre/post-turn snapshots with `/restore` and `revert_turn`, without touching your repo's `.git`
- **HTTP/SSE runtime API** — `deepseek serve --http` for headless agent workflows
- **MCP protocol** — connect to Model Context Protocol servers for extended tooling; see [docs/MCP.md](docs/MCP.md)
- **Live cost tracking** — per-turn and session-level token usage and cost estimates
- **Dark theme** — DeepSeek-blue palette

---

## Quickstart

```bash
npm install -g deepseek-tui
deepseek
```

On first launch you'll be prompted for your [DeepSeek API key](https://platform.deepseek.com/api_keys). You can also set it ahead of time:

```bash
# via CLI
deepseek login --api-key "YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"

# via env var
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"
deepseek
```

### Using NVIDIA NIM

```bash
deepseek auth set --provider nvidia-nim --api-key "YOUR_NVIDIA_API_KEY"
deepseek --provider nvidia-nim

# or per-process:
DEEPSEEK_PROVIDER=nvidia-nim NVIDIA_API_KEY="..." deepseek
```

### Other DeepSeek V4 providers

```bash
deepseek auth set --provider fireworks --api-key "YOUR_FIREWORKS_API_KEY"
deepseek --provider fireworks --model deepseek-v4-pro

# SGLang is self-hosted; auth is optional for localhost deployments.
SGLANG_BASE_URL="http://localhost:30000/v1" deepseek --provider sglang --model deepseek-v4-flash
```

<details>
<summary>Install from source</summary>

```bash
git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI.git
cd DeepSeek-TUI
cargo install --path crates/tui --bin deepseek-tui --locked   # requires Rust 1.85+
cargo install --path crates/cli --bin deepseek --locked
```

</details>

---

## What's new in v0.7.9

### ⚡ Post-turn responsiveness

The checkpoint-restart cycle boundary now runs *before* `TurnComplete`
is emitted to the UI, so the terminal is immediately responsive after
every completed turn. The "↻ context refreshing…" status chip stays
visible during the cycle wait instead of blocking input.

### ⌨️ Enter during streaming now queues

When the model is actively streaming text and you press Enter, your
message is now parked on the queue for dispatch after the turn finishes
— no more corrupted mid-turn steering. A status line shows "Queued
follow-up: … (N queued)" so you know what's waiting.

### 🛡️ Esc during fanout is robust

Canceling a fanout (swarm/sub-agent spawn) with Esc no longer leaves
the transcript in a broken state when the engine sends a delayed
`TurnComplete`. Both finalization paths are now idempotent — no
double `[interrupted]` prefixes, no stale tool cards.

### 🧪 Test hardening

New regression tests lock in the Esc-during-fanout idempotency
contract and the streaming vs. steer dispatch decision.

Full changelog: [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).

---

## What's new in v0.7.8

### ⚡ Shell controls: foreground-to-background detach + `exec_shell_cancel`

A running foreground command can now be moved to the background interactive
session — press **`Ctrl+B`** while a command is executing to open shell
controls, then either detach it (it continues running and can be polled
with `exec_shell_wait`) or cancel the current turn.

**New tool: `exec_shell_cancel`** — cancel a specific background shell
task by `task_id`, or cancel all running background tasks with `all: true`.

**Cancel-aware `exec_shell_wait`** — canceling a turn while
`exec_shell_wait` is blocking now stops the wait but leaves the background
task running.

### 🐛 Unicode glob search fix

Filenames containing multi-byte characters (e.g., `dialogue_line__冰糖.mp3`)
no longer panic the `matches_glob` function — byte-index slicing was replaced
with `char_indices()` boundary-safe iteration.

### 🔄 Swarm UI reconciliation

The fanout card no longer pre-seeds with zero-state workers, eliminating the
"0 done · 0 running · 0 failed · N pending" vs sidebar "N running"
contradiction. The sidebar now shows "dispatching N" before the first progress
event arrives from a `agent_swarm` invocation.

Full changelog: [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).

---

## What's new in v0.7.6

### 🌐 UI Localization

DeepSeek TUI now speaks your language. The new `locale` setting
in `settings.toml` controls UI chrome — composer, history search,
`/config`, help overlay, and status hints — without changing model
output language.

| Setting | Display |
|---|---|
| `locale = \"auto\"` | Checks `LC_ALL` → `LC_MESSAGES` → `LANG` (default) |
| `locale = \"ja\"` | Japanese |
| `locale = \"zh-Hans\"` | Chinese Simplified |
| `locale = \"pt-BR\"` | Portuguese (Brazil) |
| `locale = \"en\"` | English fallback |

Unsure what to pick? Run `locale` in your terminal; the first matching
tag is used automatically.

### 📋 Smarter paste handling

Paste-burst detection catches rapid-key pastes in terminals that don't
send bracketed-paste events — CRLF is normalized, and multiline pastes
stay buffered until you stop typing. Configurable via `paste_burst_detection`.

### 🔍 Composer history search

Forgot that prompt you wrote an hour ago? `Alt+R` opens a live search
across input history and recovered drafts. Type to filter, `Enter` to
accept, `Esc` to restore what you were typing.

### 👁️ Pending input preview

During a running turn, queued messages, pending steers, and context chips
appear above the composer so you can see what will be sent next.
`Alt+↑` pops the last queued message back for editing.

### ⚙️ Grouped `/config` editor

`/config` now groups settings by section (Model, Permissions, Display,
...) with a live filter. `↑/↓` (or `j`/`k` when the filter is empty)
navigate; `Enter`/`e` edit the selected row; `Esc` clears the filter
or closes.

### ⌨️ Searchable help overlay

`?` (with empty input), `F1`, or `Ctrl+/` opens a searchable help
overlay. Type to filter commands and keybindings; multi-term searches
act as AND.

Full history: [CHANGELOG.md](CHANGELOG.md).

---

## Models & Pricing

DeepSeek TUI targets **DeepSeek V4** models with 1M-token context windows by default.

| Model | Context | Input (cache hit) | Input (cache miss) | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `deepseek-v4-pro` | 1M | $0.003625 / 1M* | $0.435 / 1M* | $0.87 / 1M* |
| `deepseek-v4-flash` | 1M | $0.0028 / 1M | $0.14 / 1M | $0.28 / 1M |

Legacy aliases `deepseek-chat` and `deepseek-reasoner` silently map to `deepseek-v4-flash`.

**NVIDIA NIM** hosted variants (`deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-pro`, `deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4-flash`) use your NVIDIA account terms — no DeepSeek platform billing.

*\*DeepSeek lists the Pro rates above as a limited-time 75% discount valid until 2026-05-05 15:59 UTC; the TUI cost estimator falls back to base Pro rates after that timestamp.*

---

## Usage

```bash
deepseek                                      # interactive TUI
deepseek "explain this function"              # one-shot prompt
deepseek --model deepseek-v4-flash "summarize" # model override
deepseek --yolo                               # YOLO mode (auto-approve tools)
deepseek login --api-key "..."                # save API key
deepseek doctor                               # check setup & connectivity
deepseek doctor --json                        # machine-readable diagnostics
deepseek setup --status                       # read-only setup status
deepseek setup --tools --plugins              # scaffold local tool/plugin dirs
deepseek models                               # list live API models
deepseek sessions                             # list saved sessions
deepseek resume --last                        # resume latest session
deepseek serve --http                         # HTTP/SSE API server
deepseek mcp list                             # list configured MCP servers
deepseek mcp validate                         # validate MCP config/connectivity
deepseek mcp-server                           # run dispatcher MCP stdio server
```

### Keyboard shortcuts

| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| `Tab` | Complete `/` or `@` entries; while a turn is running, queue the draft as a follow-up; otherwise cycle mode |
| `Shift+Tab` | Cycle reasoning-effort: off → high → max |
| `F1` | Help |
| `Esc` | Back / dismiss |
| `Ctrl+K` | Command palette |
| `Ctrl+R` | Resume an earlier session |
| `Alt+R` | Search prompt history and recover cleared drafts |
| `@path` | Attach file/directory context in composer |
| `↑` (at composer start) | Select attachment row for removal |
| `Alt+↑` | Edit last queued message |
| `/attach <path>` | Attach image/video media references; select the row with `↑` at composer start and remove with `Backspace`/`Delete` |

---

## Modes

| Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|
| **Plan** 🔍 | Read-only investigation — model explores and proposes a decomposition plan (`update_plan` + `checklist_write`) before making changes |
| **Agent** 🤖 | Default interactive mode — multi-step tool use with approval gates; model outlines work via `checklist_write` before requesting writes |
| **YOLO** ⚡ | Auto-approve all tools in a trusted workspace; model still creates `checklist_write`/`update_plan` to keep work visible and trackable |

---

## Configuration

`~/.deepseek/config.toml` — see [config.example.toml](config.example.toml) for every option.

Key environment overrides:

| Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|
| `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` | API key |
| `DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL` | API base URL |
| `DEEPSEEK_MODEL` | Default model |
| `DEEPSEEK_PROVIDER` | Provider: `deepseek` (default), `nvidia-nim`, `fireworks`, or `sglang` |
| `DEEPSEEK_PROFILE` | Config profile name |
| `NVIDIA_API_KEY` | NVIDIA NIM API key |
| `FIREWORKS_API_KEY` | Fireworks AI API key |
| `SGLANG_BASE_URL` | Self-hosted SGLang endpoint |
| `SGLANG_API_KEY` | Optional SGLang bearer token |

Quick diagnostics: `deepseek setup --status` checks API key, MCP, sandbox, and
`.env` state without network calls; `deepseek doctor --json` is suitable for CI;
`deepseek setup --tools --plugins` scaffolds local tool and plugin directories.

DeepSeek context caching is automatic — when the API returns cache hit/miss token fields, the TUI includes them in usage and cost tracking.

Full reference: [docs/CONFIGURATION.md](docs/CONFIGURATION.md) and [docs/MCP.md](docs/MCP.md).

UI locale is separate from model language — set `locale` in `settings.toml`
or via the `LC_ALL`/`LANG` environment variables. See [docs/CONFIGURATION.md](docs/CONFIGURATION.md).

---

## Publishing your own skill

DeepSeek-TUI can install community skills directly from a GitHub repo, with no
backend service in the loop:

1. Create a public GitHub repo with a `SKILL.md` at the root containing the
   usual `---` frontmatter (`name`, `description`).
2. Multi-skill bundles use `skills/<name>/SKILL.md` instead — the installer
   picks the first match and names the install after the frontmatter `name`.
3. Push to `main` (or `master`); the installer fetches
   `archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz` and falls back to `master.tar.gz`.
4. Users install via `/skill install github:<owner>/<repo>` — installs are
   gated by the `[network]` policy, validated for path traversal and size, and
   placed under `~/.deepseek/skills/<name>/`.
5. Submit a PR to the curated `index.json` (default registry) to make the skill
   installable by name (`/skill install <name>`) instead of the GitHub spec.

## Documentation

| Doc | Topic |
|---|---|
| [ARCHITECTURE.md](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) | Codebase internals |
| [CONFIGURATION.md](docs/CONFIGURATION.md) | Full config reference |
| [MODES.md](docs/MODES.md) | Plan / Agent / YOLO modes |
| [MCP.md](docs/MCP.md) | Model Context Protocol integration |
| [RUNTIME_API.md](docs/RUNTIME_API.md) | HTTP/SSE API server |
| [RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md](docs/RELEASE_RUNBOOK.md) | Release process |
| [OPERATIONS_RUNBOOK.md](docs/OPERATIONS_RUNBOOK.md) | Ops & recovery |

---

## Contributing

See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). Pull requests welcome!

*Not affiliated with DeepSeek Inc.*

## License

[MIT](LICENSE)